


Sugar Rush

by jetblackprelude



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Attempt at Humor, Candy, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Merfolk AU, One Shot Collection, more AUs on the way, these dumb boys do dumb stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:51:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetblackprelude/pseuds/jetblackprelude
Summary: Kokichi Ouma has a huge sweet tooth and it causes a lot of stupid grief for Kaito.A collection of one shots with candy themes.---Chp 9





	1. Bubble Gum Bomb

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna work on writing one shots so this is my excuse. I've got a small group of prompts & ideas to work with already. -w-
> 
> Chp 1 - Kaito & Kokichi hang out for a moment. There's a pack of gum involved & it goes about as great as one might expect.

Kaito was sitting at a corner of the library floor with a small stack of books beside him. It had been a few days since those weird toy bears had told a bunch of high schoolers that they were all in some weird dating show, but after a bit of tension it seemed like everyone calmed down and were now getting to know one another. Although, right now he just wanted some alone time. It's not like he was putting off the whole dating thing. He wasn't _worried_ or anything. The Luminary of the Stars could totally get a date!

Oh, why was he trying to kid himself? He had a love for adventure and excitement! Not so much of an interest in flirting or whatever. And sure, he had been quick to befriend Shuichi and Maki but he wasn't sure if he wanted to pursue anything more with either of them. Really, this whole idea was stupid! Dumping a bunch of teens together and telling them to just fall in love or whatever? What did that damn bear expect them to do?!

Just then, the back door of the library opened and in entered the tiny, self-proclaimed evil ruler Kokichi Ouma. His face seemed blank of any emotion as he looked around the room, but the moment he spotted Kaito he broke into a large grin. He waltzed right over to Kaito's spot and lowered his head to be at eye level with the other boy.

“He~llo there!” exclaimed Kokichi. “You're Momota-chan, right?”

“Uh, yeah that's me,” grumbled Kaito. He'd already picked up that the guy seemed to use '-chan' for almost everyone here, but it was still too cutesy for Kaito. “And your name is Ouma, right?”

“Hmm, Ouma? You've got that wrong!” said Kokichi with a huff. He stood up straight and waved his arms dramatically. “I'm actually the great Emperor Jimmu! Descendant of Amaterasu! So you should show your respects!!”

Kaito blinked. “Pfft! Ok, ok. Sure thing, _Your Majesty_ ,” chuckled Kaito and he rolled his eyes.

“Aww, you totally don't believe me,” said Kokichi with a pout. He then went to sit down next to the taller boy and smiled. “But that's okay. I'd be worried about you if you fell for such an obvious lie like that! So, what'cha doing here?”

“Eh, just passing the time reading. There's a nice sci-fi section here,” said Kaito. It was sorta true, he had recognized a lot of the titles here, but he hadn't really been reading the book he was holding.

“Ooooh! Recommend me something! I want something about the robot apocalypse,” and with that said, Kokichi tried to reach over across Kaito and towards the book pile.

“W-What the—?! Hold on a damn second, I'll get you something!” exclaimed Kaito as he pushed the smaller boy's arm away. “Why you interested in robot apocalypses though?”

“Isn't it obvious?”

“Uh... no?”

Kokichi motioned for Kaito to move a little closer and whispered, “It's 'cuz we're being held against our will by those robot bears. The robot apocalypse is totally gonna happen here!”

“W-What... but that Monokuma said they'd let us go if we play their stupid game.”

“And you believe a robot? What do robots even _know_ about love? You know, I bet that Kii-boy is in on it too. We gotta keep an eye on him.”

“Whatever, I guess if you wanna read about that then try this book,” he said and handed over a book from the middle of the stack. Kaito wasn't entirely sure how honest Kokichi was being, but it wasn't too odd to be skeptical of those robots. Except for Kiibo, that guy seemed genuinely nice.

Once the two of them had their books, they fell into a comfortable silence. However, again Kaito wasn't paying much attention to his book. Now, his thoughts turned to his new reading partner. He was trying to think back to the previous few days, he'd seen the others hanging around the school plenty of times but couldn't recall seeing Kokichi outside of designated meal times. And even then Kokichi seemed to just eat quickly, tease a few people, and then run off to the dorms. It was odd to say the least. Was Kokichi even trying to do the weird dating game? The supreme ruler didn't strike Kaito as someone who would avoid people. In fact, Kaito thought the other boy was small and cutesy enough to have anyone here wrapped around their finger.

“Momota-chan? Earth to Momota-chan! Don't stare off into space, do that when you're an actual astronaut!”

Kaito snapped out of his thoughts. He realized that Kokichi had been talking and poking at his cheek. It was starting to get rather annoying. “Stop! Stop it! The fuck do you want Ouma?” asked Kaito in irritation as he tried to move away from Kokichi's hands.

“Hmph! Don't be rude, Momota-chan!” scolded Kokichi. He pouted and waved a pack of gum in the air. “Well, I _was_ gonna be nice and offer you some... but if you're just gonna ignore me then you don't deserve any!” He childishly stuck his tongue out before popping a stick of gum in his mouth.

“Ugh, sorry I guess,” sighed Kaito. “I would have said no anyway, I'm not crazy about a lot of sweets.”

Kokichi gasped, as if not liking sweets was completely unheard of. But he said no more and returned to his book. It seemed like they would sit again in silence... except now Kokichi was chewing gum. And in a quiet library, it was close to being the most annoying noise that Kaito had ever heard. The lip smacking and teeth gnashing would happen so randomly and suddenly, all that Kaito was waiting for was the sound of popping a big bubb—

_BOOM!_

“GAH! WHAT THE FUCK?!” yelled Kaito as he jumped away from Kokichi, falling over and knocking the stack of books beside him in the process.

The smaller boy's face was expressionless as he picked bits of gum off his face and went right back to chewing. He turned to Kaito and gave a sly smile. “Woopsie~ I know this gum is called Bubble Gum Bomb but I didn't think it was _that_ loud. So~rry! Nishishi!”

“G-Gum Bomb?!” asked Kaito in disbelief. He shook his head and sat back up. “Okay, whatever. It's fine. Where did you get something like that anyway?”

“Nishi~ It was a prize from that gacha machine in the student store! There's some even weirder stuff in there.”

“Wonderful... well try not to give me a heart attack again, 'kay?”

“Oh, I'd _never_ dream of doing that!”

It became apparent to Kaito really quickly that Kokichi had lied. A few minutes later there was another boom pop noise. It was admittedly a little quieter than the first, but it still rattled Kaito a fair bit. He glared down at Kokichi, whose only response was to look up with sweet, apologetic eyes. Kaito tried to let it slide and focus completely on this poor book that he had barely read so far. But how could he focus when all his attention was on those little, annoying sounds? The chewing, popping, snapping, it all seemed to be amplified times 100 and were right by his ear.

“Ouma! You gotta fucking stop that,” sighed Kaito, shutting his book and turning to completely face the smaller boy.

“Hmm? Stop what?” innocently asked Kokichi. He popped another small bubble, a tiny boom like a mini firecracker was heard.

“I'm talking about _that!_ Stop that damn noise!”

“But Mo-mo-ta-chaaaan! That's what you _do_ when you chew gum!” whined Kokichi. He then grinned deviously and started blowing a big, pink bubble. When the bubble was at a decent size, he expertly inhaled and rolled the gum around his tongue.

“Y-You're doing it on fucking purpose!” accused Kaito. He was definitely getting too worked up over something so insignificant, but it was totally all Kokichi's fault!

“Nishishi! If poor Momota-chan doesn't like it, then he can just leave!” the supreme leader declared happily. Again he started blowing a bubble, this one just a bit bigger but he quickly pulled the gum back.

“NO WAY! I'm not leaving! I was here first dammit!!”

“Well, I wanna stay here too! And I will!” Another bubble, a little bigger than the last, and now dangerously close to Kaito's face.

“Ouma, I fuckin' swear that if you do that One. More. Time. I'll yank it out of your shitty mouth!!” Kaito hissed, trying to be as scary and threatening as possible.

It didn't work. Kokichi laughed smugly and rolled the gum around his mouth. “Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!”

Kokichi blew his biggest bubble yet, and unfortunately it popped with a loud BOOM! Both boys flinched back. When Kokichi looked up, he immediately spotted sticky pink gum on Kaito's goatee. The mix of pink and purple could have been hilarious, if Kaito didn't look furious.

“SHIT!” yelled Kaito. He pulled the gum from his chin and thew it somewhere on the floor. He had taken out a bit of hair along with that chunk, so if one looked carefully they'd realize his goatee looked slightly off.

“I'm sorry, Momota-chan,” apologized Kokichi with a look of genuine regret. “I didn't mean to do that.”

“Bullshit! You're totally lying!” screamed Kaito. “And you're _still_ chewing that gum?”

Fed up with all of it, Kaito grabbed Kokichi by the checkerboard neckerchief and pulled him close. He growled and raised a fist. If Kokichi was at all intimidated, then he was doing a great job at not showing it.

“You're really gonna punch me over gum?” asked Kokichi with a taunting grin.

Kaito glared, his resolve to smack the other boy wavered. Still though... he had to do _something._ He stared at that annoying smile. And then suddenly he yanked Kokichi forward and their lips crashed.

Well, Kokichi was certainly not expecting that to happen. His eyes were wide in surprise, but only for a moment as he quickly closed them after realizing Kaito was still glaring at him. Besides that, the supreme ruler was basically frozen in place. He didn't try to push away, not even when he distinctly felt Kaito's tongue poking around in his mouth. But just as quickly as it had started, it ended. Kaito pulled away with a grimace and pushed Kokichi, causing the smaller boy to fall on the floor with a yelp.

“W-What the fuck was that about?!” squeaked Kokichi as he sat back up. He was dazed and embarrassed. He felt a blush creeping up his neck and he pulled his neckerchief up to cover his face like a bandit.

“Shut up,” grumbled Kaito. He turned and spit something sticky pink onto the floor near them. He used the arm of his purple coat to wipe his mouth. “I told you I'd yank that gum out of your damn mouth! Ugh... that was fuckin' nasty...”

“So it was just...” started Kokichi, but he stopped and tugged at his neckerchief more. No, no. He needed to take control of this situation. He wouldn't let Kaito make him feel like this. So he took a quick breath to ready himself, and then started to giggle. “...Nishishi~ Nishishishi!! Momota-chan!! You're such an idiot!! Nishishi~!!”

Kaito stared incredulously. “HAH?! What are you on about now?! You're sounding like a dying horse!”

The giggles turned into almost hysterical laughter. Kokichi pulled his neckerchief down to show just how much he was laughing right now. He held onto his stomach and rocked back from all the laughter. And then he abruptly swung forward, his face close to Kaito. The laughter died down but he retained a huge smile.

“Stupid Momota-chan! Willing to kiss me, and so _passionately_ , for a wad of gum!!”

“W-Wha—A KISS?! That w-wasn't a f-fuckin' kiss!!” yelled Kaito, an obvious blush spreading on his face. “It didn't mean a damn thi—”

“But stupid Momota-chan forgot something very important!” said Kokichi as he jumped up to his feet. “I've still got a whole pack left! Nishi~!”

Kaito blinked. He watched as Kokichi chewed on another stick of gum and quickly popped a bubble. It was loud and deafening, like the starting gunshot for a race. Kaito scowled and stood up. “Give me that gum Ouma.”

“Try and catch me! Nishishi!” was Kokichi's response. He jumped back and swiftly ran towards the exit. Kaito yelled and cursed and ran after him, completely forgetting any of his earlier worries.


	2. Gummy Bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 2 - Kokichi really wanted gummies today, and luckily he's got Kaito to help him.

“Momotaaa-chaaaan!! I need a hero!!”

Kaito looked up from his lunch and saw Kokichi rushing at him with a look of utter distress. The smaller boy threw himself onto Kaito and wrapped his arms around their neck. There were tears prickling the corners of his eyes and his bottom lip trembled.

“W-What's wrong?! What happened??” asked Kaito in panic. He managed to pull Kokichi off of him, but the other boy just grabbed onto the front of his shirt.

“M-Momota-chan!! It's... sniff.. it's awful!!” sniveled Kokichi. “T-The...sniff.. _worst_ thing has happened!!”

“Dammit Kokichi, just spill it out already!”

“Sniff... T-The student store... is out of GUMMIES!!”

Kaito scowled and slapped the back of Kokichi's head, earning a yelp from the supreme leader. “Shit, for a second there I thought it was something serious!” he said and tried to go back to eating his bento.

“Ow! But I am being serious!!” whined Kokichi. “You ought to be more considerate of your evil leader boyfriend! I'll send my henchmen to beat you up.”

“Go ahead! I'll fucking beat them all up and finally bring you to my side!”

Kokichi laughed, it was nice whenever Kaito played along like that. He decided to let the conversation die down for the moment. Instead choosing to lean his head on Kaito's arm and stare at people walking around the courtyard. The two of them always ate lunch outside, under a shady tree that Kokichi had carved the first kanji of his surname on back when he started at Hope's Peak Academy.

After a minute or two of Kaito quietly eating, he spoke up, “Look, I'll buy you a bag of gummies after school or something.”

Kokichi smiled, he knew if he waited enough that Kaito would say something like that. Still, that wasn't exactly what he wanted. So he said sweetly, “But Momota-chan, I can never find my favorite brand anywhere else except for this school.”

“Then,” he stuffed rice in his mouth but kept talking, “whenzevuh deh su-tore reshtocks.”

“But the store doesn't restock candy until the end of the month! I want some gummies noooooww!”

Kaito swallowed his food and then sighed. “Kokichi! The hell do you want from me then?”

“Nishi~ Well now that you mention it, I _do_ have an idea,” he said sneakily. Kokichi sat up and clapped his hands together. “Do you know Hiyoko Saionji from the 3 rd year class?”

“Uh...” Kaito scratched his head. “The little dancer girl, right? What about her?”

“A little birdie told me that she loves those gummies even more than I do! She's bound to have an extra bag or two.”

“...'kay, so you gonna go ask her?”

“Oh no, no! She hates my guts! Not sure what I did to have her call me a disgusting, lying pig though...” He patted Kaito's shoulder. “So that's where you come in! But you gotta go right now. She was sitting alone on the bench by the marigolds. Go! Go!”

“Hey! Hey! Don't fucking push! I've still got food here!”

“Hurrrrry! Pretty please? My dear space hero,” cooed Kokichi while pulling off big, puppy dog eyes.

Kaito huffed and grumbled, “You're damn lucky I think you're cute.” He handed his bento over to Kokichi and stood up. After dusting the dirt off his pants, he walked over to where a tiny girl with blonde pigtails was sitting. In her hand was an open bag of gummies, and on the bench were another 3 or 4 more bags. “Yo, Saionji, got a favor to ask ya.”

Hiyoko popped a gummy in her mouth and gave him a nasty look. “What does some gross pig barf like _you_ want?” she sneered.

“W-What? I barely spoke a word to you,” hissed Kaito.

“It ain't hard to tell what's barf, and you're definitely it!” She ate another gummy.

“Whatever. Just hear me out,” said Kaito in exasperation. He pointed at the gummy bags. “I wanna buy some of that candy.”

She scowled and moved the bags to the opposite side, away from Kaito. “Are you some kind of weird pervert? Buy your own candy!”

He was trying his hardest to not start screaming at the girl. “The student store is out of gummies. You probably bought all that was left!”

“I bought all the candy I needed for me and Mahiru to share! No way trash like you is gonna get any!”

“Come on!” groaned Kaito. He was about to give up, when he noticed Kokichi trying to stealth his way through the bushes and marigolds by the bench. How did he even get so close without them noticing? Kaito tried to keep his cool and continue talking to the girl. “Look, I don't want any trouble. But I do want a bag of candy, so let's make a deal. You don't want money? Fine, I'll trade you something.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What could pig barf have that I'd wanna trade for?!” She sneered and stuffed a few gummies in her mouth.

“Uh... well nothing on me, but I could run and buy you something! I know a place that makes great taiyaki!”

“Hmm... I want namagashi!! A whole box of them!”

“Y-You're fucking with me? Seriously?” said Kaito in shock. Those kinds of snacks were meant for tea ceremonies and commonly shaped like cute flowers. They were meant to be eaten fresh the day you bought them, so a box of them would cost a fair bit for him. Kaito rubbed the back of his neck. “You sure drive a hard bargain...”

“It's deal or bust, space monkey!”

“Fine, fine! I'll buy you a box damm—HEY! Who you calling a space monkey!?”

At that moment, Kokichi burst from his hiding spot in the bushes. “Nishishi! That's actually a good nickname, Saionji-chan!” In his hands was one of the gummy bags that had been left unattended.

“KYAAA!!” screamed Hiyoko at the sudden appearance of someone right behind her. She turned around to face both of the boys, dropping her open bag in the process. “I-It's you!! You nasty, lying rat! I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to Mahiru's photo exhibit!!”

“Hmm? Jog my memory, I honestly don't remember,” said Kokichi, tilting his head and lifting a finger to his cheek to complete the innocently confused look.

“You stole all her photos and replaced the exhibit with pony pictures!! Then you kept lying about where you hid her stuff!!”

“Oh yeeeah! Nishi~ but those were some cute ponies!”

Hiyoko turned red and a few tears looked ready to spill. Then she noticed Kokichi had taken her candy. “Oh! So now you're stealing from me?! And I bet space monkey over here was in on it!!”

Kaito stuttered and tried to reply, but Kokichi was quick to jump in. “Momota-chan didn't know I'd come and snatch these. But I just couldn't let my dear hero selflessly spend his money on an ugly brat like you! Anyways, start running Momota-chan!”

“W-Wha—” he didn't have time to say anything else.

In a split second, Kokichi threw the candy bag right at him. He heard Hiyoko scream again. Kaito fumbled the catch but now the bag was in his hands. It was definitely really dumb and unheroic of him to run away, but he did it anyway. He ran off at full speed, not really sure where he was actually heading to. Hiyoko had started bawling like crazy. Other students stopped to look at what was happening, but didn't get involved.

A few minutes later, Kaito was waiting around by the school greenhouse after Kokichi had sent him a text. Apparently, the smaller boy also decided to run off but in the opposite direction to make Hiyoko chase him. When he arrived, he was carrying both their bags and his left cheek was a bit red.

“Momota-chan,” whimpered Kokichi as he sat down. “Saionji-chan's girlfriend slapped me...Kiss it better!”

“You deserve it for being a lil shit,” replied Kaito, but he smiled and leaned in to kiss the other boy. “How'd they catch up to ya anyway?”

“Hmph! We forgot our stuff by the tree, so I went back to get it. And those two girls were waiting there,” he explained and passed Kaito's bag to him. “Don't worry your lunch should be safe.”

“Thanks, and I guess this is yours now.” Kaito handed over the gummy bag to a very excited Kokichi. “You better savor every bite of these candies!”

“Of course! My dear Momota-chan got them for me! You can have some too!”

Kaito nodded. “By the way, I'm gonna order some namagashi and apologize to those girls tomorrow. You gotta come with and say sorry, got it Kokichi?”

“....Fine, but only because I know you won't stop bugging me until I do,” he pouted.

The rest of their lunchtime was spent chatting and Kokichi throwing gummies while Kaito tried catching them in his mouth. They didn't taste like anything special, which was was rather disappointing to Kaito after everything he dealt with. But he supposed that it was worth it if it made Kokichi happy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter than the first oneshot, but I think I like it. I'm trying to decide if the next one will be the vday one or if I'll write something else first.
> 
> I think... if these two started dating then Momota would be quick to use Ouma's first name, but Ouma would keep using "Momota-chan" + some nicknames. >:3c


	3. Sugar Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 3 - Part one of a 2 part Valentines special. In which Kokichi is a terrible baker and Kaito wishes he could understand the little brat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hah... this is gonna be a two-parter. I think bc I wanted to spend a bit more time detailing some of my thoughts on these two characters. I mean, I did kinda touch upon some ideas earlier (like, Kaito not eating sweets all that often) but I'm trying to focus on it a bit more here. But still keep it fluffy of course!  
> Thank for the kudos & comments! :D It's the 13th where I am, part 2 will come out tomorrow on actual Vday for me.

“Momota-chan!! I've been looking for you!”

“Hah? What do you want, Ouma?”

Kokichi grinned. His hands were behind his back and he rocked back & forth on his heels like a kid who was too excited to keep a secret properly. Frankly he would have preferred to not do this in the middle of a hallway where anyone could walk by, but Kokichi also didn't want to have to carry this around any longer than he had to. He swung his arms to the front and thrust towards Kaito's face a bag of cookies tied with a purple ribbon.

“Uh... you pulling my leg here?” asked Kaito as he slowly grabbed the bag. “What's this for anyway?”

“Hey, can't I give a present to a dear friend of mine?” pouted Kokichi. In the back of his mind, he thought about how lucky he was that the Ultimate Astronaut was pretty dense about certain topics. _'I bet he doesn't even know what day it is!'_

“I guess you could, but we ain't exactly the closest,” Kaito looked at the bag from all angles, like he suspected it could blow up in his face. “Actually, I'm pretty sure you hate me.”

“Aww don't say that... you're breaking my heart!” he said with a sob. Before the other could tell him to quit faking it, Kokichi clapped his hands together and cheerfully shouted, “Okay! The truth is that I made these for home ec and I need someone's honest opinion on them! And you're always so quick to say how you feel, it's a stupid thing to do but I need that kind of stupidity right now!”

Kaito's eyes narrowed. “I'm just gonna eat one of these and pretend you didn't say that last part,” he muttered as he undid the ribbon. They were sugar cookies that didn't look particularly pretty. They were a bit lumpy and all weird shapes. He grabbed one that sorta looked like a lopsided heart and could tell immediately that it was a very tough cookie. Did Kokichi really expect him to eat this? He looked down at the smaller boy whose eyes were twinkling, he couldn't really detect any malice but then again Kokichi _was_ a very good liar. Still he tried to take a bite out of it, only to taste what was basically a salty rock. His face scrunched up in disgust.

“No good?” wondered Kokichi. The light in his eyes was gone and he seemed to have gone totally blank.

“Yeah... these are total shit,” he gagged and threw the bitten cookie back into the bag. “You could probably throw these at someone and seriously hurt them.”

“Heh, now there's an idea,” chuckled Kokichi, but it didn't sound right to Kaito. The guy seemed a bit disappointed by it all. Kokichi turned around and started walking away. “But I guess it's back to the kitchen for me! Thanks for the input, Momota-chan!”

“H-Hey hold up! Don't you want these back?”

Kokichi turned his head back and smiled. “Nishi~ Why would I want shitty cookies? I've got no plans to murder anytime soon.”

_'Guess these are going in the trash then,'_ thought Kaito as he walked off in the opposite direction. He spotted a trash can quickly enough, dumped the rock cookies, and kept walking. When he got to his homeroom, he noticed a few classmates with bags or boxes of sweets. Which was odd, because his class definitely did not include home economics. Now that he thought about it... was that even an available class for first years like him and Kokichi? He saw that Shuichi was holding a small bag of chocolate, so he went to sit down beside the detective and asked, “Hey Shuichi, where'd you get that?”

“Oh Momota-kun,” Shuichi was blushing a bit. “A-Akamatsu-san gave me these...”

“How come?”

“I'm sure it's just because we're friends,” he said with a small smile. “She gave candy to some others, like Amami-kun & Shirogane-san.”

Kaito frowned, he felt like he was missing something very obvious. “Ok, but why is she giving sweets out today? And everyone else...” He waved a hand haphazardly in the air to show that he was referring to their classmates. “Why do they have sweets too?”

Shuichi looked at his friend skeptically. After a moment of silence he asked, “M-Momota-kun, do you know what today is?”

“Hmm? Yeah, today's Wednesday! They serve curry in the cafeteria today!” answered Kaito, not really sure what that had to do with his questions.

“T-That's not..” Shuichi sighed. “Did you forget today is Valentine's Day?”

_'Oh.'_ Kaito's eyes widen as his friend's statement sunk in. He rubbed the back of his head and said, “Well it's mostly a girls' holiday, ain't it? At least, it's marketed like that. All the pink and hearts and sweets... it doesn't interest me much so I usually forget it's even a thing.”

The detective sighed again. He was used to his friend having some old-fashioned ideas, but to forget a holiday because it was a 'girl' thing seemed especially silly. “You must have had candy given to you in the past though?”

“Sure, like a few times in middle school,” Kaito frowned and brought his fists together. “But I don't.... like most sweets to begin with, and I was pretty blunt about it back then... so...”

“Momota-kun... you didn't... reject those presents, did you?”

“Look, I know in hindsight I was kinda a dick but the holiday was never really on my radar. And a love confession like that would have never worked on me anyway,” argued back Kaito. Before they could continue this conversation, the teacher arrived and homeroom started.

Kaito flipped through his notebook. So, now he knew it was Valentine's Day... what did that have to do with Kokichi making him eat shitty cookies? Those weren't a present from the guy were they? No, that was impossible. He was positive that Kokichi didn't like him, and he wasn't too keen on the brat either. The two of them have never even had a conversation together without some amount of taunting and fighting breaking out. Besides, the Ultimate Supreme Leader seemed too... closed off from everyone in this school to ever genuinely give a present like homemade cookies. So, the likely possibilities were that either a) this was part of a prank, or b) there was at least one person in Kokichi's life that he cared about.

_'The brat did say something about heading to the kitchen,'_ thought Kaito as he started to write down lesson notes. _'Probably means one of the student kitchens. I'll go looking for him during lunch. Maybe I'll figure out something then.'_

* * *

Kokichi coughed as he opened the oven door and black smoke started pouring out. He tried to cover his nose and mouth with his neckerchief. This was maybe the fourth or fifth batch of cookies that he had botched up, but it was the first batch that he had actually burned to a crisp. The little evil leader growled, how was he getting progressively _worse_ at baking? He threw away the cookies into the overflowing trashcan, and then lied his head down on the table counter. At the rate he was going, maybe it'd be more productive if he just stole a couple boxes of cookies from the supermarket.

“I shouldn't have promised everyone I'd be bringing cookies,” he grumbled and tried to hide his head in his hands.

Suddenly, he heard the door open and a voice call out, “Ack! Cough! W-What the hell happened here?”

Kokichi lifted his head and groaned when he saw Kaito standing there. “Go away Momota-chan, I'm not in the mood to play with you,” he huffed and covered his head again.

Kaito closed the door behind him and ignored the smaller boy's complaints. He walked towards the windows and started opening them to let the smoke out. He surveyed the damage around the student kitchen: dozens of cookies thrown away, flour and batter spilled on the tables, eggshells everywhere, dirty dishes, and Kokichi slumped down with flour in his purple hair and wearing a frilly pink apron. It was kinda funny, but in a pitiful sort of way that really just made the astronaut trainee feel a bit of sympathy for the smaller boy. Kaito went to sit down across from Kokichi, rested his face in his hands, and leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “So! I take it you skipped your morning classes?”

“What an insightful observation!” replied Kokichi in a muffled voice.

“Who ya working so hard to bake cookies for?”

“None. Of. Your. Business.”

“Ouma! Don't give me that fucking attitude!” said Kaito indignantly. He moved his head to rest solely on his left hand, and then used his free hand to lightly hit the back of Kokichi's head. “Maybe I can help you!”

Kokichi shook his head in irritation but wouldn't look up. “Hah! What could stupid Momota-chan offer to do?”

“....I can help you with baking, of course.”

There was a beat of silence, and then giggling. “Nishi shi~” Kokichi lifted his head up. His face was covered in flour and he seemed to be forcing himself to smile a bit too wide. “Momota-chan... the super manly Momota-chan... knows how to bake? Nishishi! That's too funny!”

“Oh s-shut up! C-Cooking is a damn important skill!” yelled Kaito. Even though he said that, it was obvious that he didn't fully believe in his own words. “Look! I'm trying to be a little fucking nice with you! And obviously these cookies are important to you for who the hell knows what reason!”

“Maybe I'm trying to perfect the cutest looking cookies that still taste awful for a prank?”

“Maybe... but then you could just go to a bakery, buy cookies, and lace them with some shit!”

Kokichi placed a hand to his chin. “Wow Momota-chan, first you suggest cookies as projectiles and now you propose that I drug people with them? You're more diabolical than I thought! Remind me to invite you to my evil organization. Nishishi!”

“Ugh! No thanks!” he grimaced and looked out at the window. Really he should just leave Kokichi alone, but that didn't seem like the right thing to do. Weren't heroes suppose to extend a hand out to the villains sometimes? Kaito always wanted to help others and he thought he was a decent judge of character, but there were some people he just couldn't understand. Kokichi was one of those people that frustrated Kaito to no end. That flippant, jokester personality and the way he used words to lure people in but also to push them far away... Kaito tried to understand but dammit, Kokichi made it difficult.

“Momota-chan,”said Kokichi, flicking a bit of flour to catch the other boy's attention. “Why does someone like you know how to bake cookies? It doesn't suit you _at all!”_

“Hmph... I've lived with my grandparents most of my life,” he said while avoiding the supreme leader's gaze. “Baba loves cooking and baking so... she wanted to teach me. Even though I never liked sweets much.”

“Awwww, Momota-chan is a grandma's boy!! Nishishi!”

Kaito stood up and dusted off the flour that got on his school jacket. “Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want... whatever. Ya want my help or not?”

Kokichi stared up blankly, he seemed to be thinking things over carefully. “I need at least 5 dozen sugar cookies by the end of today.”

“WHAT?! 60 cookies?!” yelled Kaito in disbelief. He facepalmed and grumbled for a moment. “Hmph! Okay, this is what we're gonna do! I'mma help you clean this place and see what ingredients are still available here. After school we go buy whatever else we'll need. And then we can start baking your goddamn 60 cookies! Sound like a plan?”

“Yeah, I guess so...” answered Kokichi. He conceded to the idea of Kaito helping him, but it was clear he wasn't too happy about it. After a bit of deliberation, he smiled and said, “Momota-chan! I'm making you an honorary member of DICE for just today! As my subordinate I order you to make me the best sugar cookies!”

“I ain't your underling!” he barked before walking off to get cleaning rags. “And who said I'm gonna make all these damn cookies? You gotta put the work in for whoever is receiving all these sweets! Who needs that many cookies anyway?”

“Hmm, hmm~ Maybe I'll tell you about it later? But, for now I'll just say that I've got lots of Valentines to give out today.”

The two boys spent most of lunchtime cleaning the kitchen. It became apparent that Kokichi had wasted a lot of the ingredients needed. Kaito agreed that he'd go buy more ingredients (“I promise to pay you back!” was likely a lie) and he also decided on his own that he'd make royal icing for decorating. And that's how the Luminary of the Stars ended up agreeing to spend Valentine's Day with the irritable but rather interesting evil Supreme Leader.

 

 


	4. Frosted Sugar Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 4 - Part 2 of a 2 part Valentines special. In which the boys bake a lot of cookies and they talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh god this went on longer than I expected o.o but it's still the 14th here so, Happy Valentines Day ^^;; uh, I'll double check typos later.

When the cleaning was done, Kaito raced to the cafeteria to try and get some last minute lunch. Sadly, there was no more curry so he had to settle for fish and rice. He went to sit down with Shuichi and Maki, who both gave him a funny look for arriving so late. He quickly said, “Sorry, got held up helping someone,” and then stuffed his face with food. They nodded, it definitely sounded like a Kaito-thing that would happen, and then continued a conversation they had been having moments prior to Kaito's arrival.

“Harukawa-san, it sounds like you'll have a nice Valentine's Day with all the kids,” said Shuichi. “You sure you don't want any help with the party?”

“I think I'll manage,” replied Maki. “Just have to be careful with how many sweets everyone gets, I don't want to deal with a bunch of hyper kids.”

“Hmm, you having a party at the orphanage Maki Roll?” asked Kaito.

Maki nodded. “It was sorta a tradition to have Valentine's parties when I was younger, but they stopped doing them when I was around 7. But this year the adults wanted to try and bring it back.”

“Hey! It's nice of ya to help them out then!!”

She pouted and pulled at one of her pigtails. “Of course I'd help... the kids listen to me more than to the adults anyway.”

“Hah! Guess that's true!” Kaito laughed and then turned to Shuichi. “What are you gonna do today?”

“Oh... nothing special. I'll probably just eat some candy while organizing Uncle's case files,” said Shuichi. “Um, the week of Valentine's tends to be busy for the detective agency. A lot of affairs happen around this time, so I help around the office while Uncle and the other detectives go after suspected cheaters.”

“Wow, well I'm sure my sidekicks will do great! I've got some stuff to take care of after school, so you two might not see me before you leave for today,” said Kaito before finishing off his fish. Out of the trio, only Kaito stayed in the dorms and they all tended to hang out a bit by the school gates before Maki and Shuichi left.

“What are you gonna be doing?” wondered Maki. She handed to Kaito a few pieces of chicken from her own bento, which he happily accepted.

“Eh, mostly just shopping. I'm out of hair gel and some food stuff.” That wasn't a total lie on his part. He rubbed the back of his head. “Plus I gotta call Baba and Jiji, to tell them how I've been and wish them Happy Valentines.”

Soon enough, lunchtime was over and the trio headed back to class. Maki was actually in a different homeroom (with Kokichi, which annoyed her to no end). Kaito wondered if Kokichi simply went back to his own dorm room, since the guy already missed half of the school day. Hope's Peak didn't seem to care too much about attendance for their Ultimate students. He'd go knock on Kokichi's door before going to buy all the ingredients, just to make sure the guy hadn't changed his mind about the cookies.

* * *

Kokichi was sitting on his bed, staring at the empty white boxes laying inconspicuously in front of him. In a few hours he needed these boxes to be filled with sugar cookies, that was the promise he had made to DICE. He had lied when he said that it'd be easy to get so many cookies by this evening, but he couldn't say no! His precious DICE members deserved to enjoy Valentine's Day to the fullest! If Kaito hadn't offered to help, then Kokichi would have certainly found another way of getting sweets. He could have talked to Kirumi... actually, maybe he could still do that? Five dozen cookies was probably easy enough for the Ultimate Maid. But then again... he thought about what Kaito had said, about 'putting the work in' making the sweets. It _would_ be nice to be able to say to DICE that their great leader helped bake so many cookies.

There was a knock on the door, and Kokichi went to open it a crack. “Momota-chan! Class over already?”

“Yeah, so you still wanna bake?”

“Yep!! Are we gonna go shopping together?” He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of being seen shopping with Kaito, the two weren't really known around school for getting along.

“Eh, it's up to you I guess. There might be some stuff you wanna pick out yourself? Like the food dye or cookie cutters or something,” said Kaito with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Hmm, I guess that could be fun,” Kokichi pondered it for a moment. “Okay but let's _not_ go to the supermarket closest to the school. And maybe not walk out of the school together. And I'm not going in my uniform. I don't wanna be recognized with you.”

“I mean, it's already kinda weird that I'm here talking to you,” pointed out Kaito.

“I guess that's true.... so you should leave right now! We can meet up at that place at the underground mall!” Kokichi tried to push Kaito away from the door.

“Ok, ok! Don't fucking push! Anyways, I'm sure you'd come up with a lie if someone asked what we're doing.” With that said, Kaito turned around and left.

It turned out to be really crowded at the supermarket, as a bunch of people were doing last minute Valentine's shopping. It made it easier for someone small like Kokichi to not be immediately spotted, and he was being extra careful as well. He was wearing a large coat, sunglasses, a face mask, and had his hair pulled up under a hat. Kaito wasn't sure if he should be insulted that Kokichi was that serious about not being seen around him, or if it was just silly the lengths that the supreme leader would go to. They even sat on opposite sides of the subway! Well, no matter, they were still picking stuff out together. They had gotten most of the ingredients and some cookie cutters, now they were looking at the food gel coloring.

“What colors do ya wanna decorate with?” asked Kaito. He grabbed a bottle of blue coloring and added it to the cart.

“Um... black and purple! And I guess pink? Keep it a little traditional I guess,” said Kokichi as he grabbed the 3 bottles. “You know, if you give me money I can pay for some stuff in a separate lane.”

“Heh, you're really damn paranoid about being seen with me, aren't ya Ouma?” chuckled Kaito. “Just say you hate me or something already.”

“...I don't _hate_ you, not really,” responded Kokichi. He pulled his sunglasses up so he could look at Kaito eye to eye. He seemed to be taking this conversation very seriously. “I mean don't get me wrong, I think you're super annoying and an idiot at times, but the world needs idiots like you. Idiot, wannabe heroes who are way too trusting and offer to bake cookies with evil supreme leaders. Keeps things interesting.”

“Ouma, you're real lucky that we're in a store right now or I would have hit you by now,” hissed Kaito. He grabbed the bottles from Kokichi's hands and mumbled, “But I guess that's the closest thing to a compliment I'll ever get from you.”

“Nishishi! Then again,” he pulled the sunglasses back down. “I could just be lying right now! I've got an image to keep up, you know! Come on, let's go pay!”

Kokichi ran down the aisle. Kaito bit back the urge to yell at him, and instead just followed the other boy to the checkout line. Despite suggesting that he may had been lying, it felt like Kokichi wanted to reassure the other boy. He stayed by Kaito the rest of the way back to Hope's Peak, even taking off the hat on the subway.

* * *

“OUMA! Don't you fucking dare put that much sugar in the bowl!”

Kaito thought that he'd given a simple task to the small boy: put butter and sugar in a bowl, then use the stand mixer until it was creamy. He had pulled up on his student tablet an easy recipe from some site and only had to make a few tiny changes to accommodate for the amount of cookies they were making. There was absolutely no reason for Kokichi to be trying to pour in half the bag of sugar.

“But I want these to be super sweet cookies!” whined Kokichi. Regardless, he was already getting out a measuring cup. His hair was tied up into a ponytail and he was wearing the same frilly apron from earlier.

“Trust me, just follow the recipe and the cookies are gonna be sweet enough,” said Kaito, who wore a simple black apron. He turned to his own bowl where he was going to whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. He heard the whir of the mixer turning on, followed by Kokichi making a strangled yelp. “Did sugar fly out of the bowl or something?”

“....No.”

When Kaito turned around, he found that it had been a lie. Sugar and butter was spilling out and hitting Kokichi on the arms and face. The mixer was set too high, so Kaito went and lowered the speed.

“Next up is the egg and vanilla, you can handle that right?”

“Of course! Don't doubt me just because of a little screw up!” shouted Kokichi. He grabbed an egg and tried to crack it.

“Uh hey Ouma, be a little more gentle wi—”

Crack. The goop and pieces of eggshell were now all over the edge of the table and on Kokichi's hand. He stared silently at the mess he had made. Then he slapped his hands together, looked up at Kaito, and grinned widely. He reached out with messy hands towards the taller boy, and giggled quietly.

“U-Uh Ouma? What the hell?” Kaito asked, but he had a feeling where this was going. He took a few steps back. “Ouma! There's a sink right over there!! So you better not—!!”

“Momota-chan! I have to clean my hands!! Nishishi!” He got a bit closer but Kaito moved back.

“You little shit! Not on me!!” Kaito grabbed the bag of flour. “Back off! I'm armed!”

Kokichi grabbed the egg carton and laughed madly. They chased each other around the classroom, at one point Kaito jumped over one of the table counters. Kokichi was pretty precise with egg throwing, he managed to hit Kaito a few times. Meanwhile, Kaito just flung flour around whenever he felt it was the best time to do so. It was messy and a waste of time, but it was also rather fun? At some point, Kokichi's laugh sounded less like a crazy villain and more relaxed. Even Kaito was grinning now. It only lasted a few minutes, and they finally reached a standstill.

“O-Okay, now... that _that's_ out of our system,” said Kaito, breathing a bit heavy from running and jumping. “Let's... wash our hands and hurry up with the dough.”

“Okay!” beamed Kokichi. He left the rest of the eggs on the counter and rushed up to the sink.

Luckily, they were both conscious enough to not waste all of the flour and eggs during their little food fight. There was still enough left for the dough. This time, Kaito handled the rest of the wet ingredients while Kokichi poured in the dry ingredients. The sticky dough was split in half and covered in clear plastic wrap. Kaito shaped the dough a bit into a more disk shape, and then placed both pieces into the freezer.

“Momota-chan, I don't want frozen cookies,” said Kokichi with a pout.

Kaito shook his head. “That's not why they're going in the freezer. It's good to chill cookie dough for a couple of hours, it makes the dough less sticky so we can cut out shapes. But we don't have enough time! So I'll pop the dough in the freezer and see how it goes.”

“Oh! That sounds pretty smart.”

“Glad you're finally noticing my genius!”

Kokichi smiled slyly. “Don't get ahead of yourself, it's just baking~”

“W-Whatever! I'm obviously better at it than you!” huffed Kaito. He grabbed a pinch of leftover flour and sprinkled it on Kokichi's hair. “Let's clean up while the dough chills.”

* * *

The first couple of minutes cleaning was rather quiet. But Kokichi didn't like quiet so he said, “Hey, I've got a question for Momota-chan!”

“Shoot,” said Kaito. He was mopping the floor some distance away from Kokichi, who was wiping the tables.

“If you weren't here helping me bake cookies... what would you be doing on this Valentine's Day?”

“Huh...” Kaito stopped cleaning and hit his knuckles together, it was a habit he had when he needed to think about something. “I guess just go to my dorm room, call my grandparents, and then do homework until dinnertime?”

“Really? That's so sad...” the leader said, placing a hand over his heart and doing his best pity face.

“Shut up! This holiday ain't really my thing!” He went back to mopping, but with more force put into it than earlier.

“But still! You weren't gonna hang out with Saihara-chan and Harukawa-chan? Valentine's Day isn't just for romance, you know.”

“They're basically working today. Shuichi with detective stuff and Maki Roll at the orphanage.”

“Nishishi! You must be so happy to be spending the holiday with me then!”

Kaito rolled his eyes. “I'm not sure I'd go _that_ far, but it's not boring spending time with you. Plus, I never thought I'd bake with someone else besides Baba.” He put aside the mop and went to check on the dough, maybe he'd leave it there for another 20 minutes.

“So, there's no one special that Momota-chan wanted sweets from?”

“Well, I don't eat sweets that often... but what the hell is this?! An interrogation?” Kaito walked up to the table that Kokichi just finished cleaning.

“Nishishi! I guess it is?” Kokichi laughed and jumped up to sit on the table counter. He kicked his legs like a bored kid. “But you didn't really answer my question. Did you want someone to confess to you today?”

“Getting a little personal, aren't we?”

“You can ask about my love life too! Or any other questions you have! Not everyday I offer to talk about myself!”

“Hmm, okay then! Well if someone wanted to confess to me, just candy won't cut it!” Kaito went back to hitting his knuckles. “I guess I don't care for Valentine's Day because people are just using candy as a ruse to convey how you really feel! Why do people need a special day and special candy to be honest with each other?”

“So... what do you want then?”

“I don't really know... I guess, they need to be able to hit me with everything they got? To be passionate about their feelings!”

“Wow,” said Kokichi and then he jumped down from the table. “I don't totally get it, but it kinda sounds like the silly, macho response I'd expect from someone like you!”

“Hmph! So, I get to ask questions now?”

“Sure, sure. No promises that they'll be the truth though!”

“Figures,” sighed Kaito. He went to grab the ingredients for royal icing and set them on the table. “Let's work on this while we talk, we need like 5 bowls of this stuff.”

Kaito mixed confectioners sugar, meringue powder, vanilla extract, and water. He created a white icing and then added in blue gel coloring. He covered the bowl with clear wrap, stored it in the fridge, and then turned to Kokichi. “So, first question! We're not making 60 cookies because you've got a crush on someone, right?”

“I'm shocked you'd think that Momota-chan!” gasped Kokichi. He reached for another bowl and started working on making the icing. “I'm not some school girl in love!”

“Just making sure... so who are the cookies for?”

“Mmm, they're for my favorite people in the whole world! My beloved secret organization! Pass the purple, please!”

Kaito handed over the bottle. “Oh, the one with 10,000 members? Then 60 cookies aren't enough.”

“The cookies are only for my top, TOP subordinates! I promised them we'd have a Valentine's party.”

“That's pretty nice for an evil leader like yourself,” said Kaito as he covered the bowl of purple icing.

Kokichi nodded and started work on the third batch. He grew a little quiet, as if he was thinking over what to say next. “Don't tell anyone but when I was really young, I was part of a different organization.... and we'd have lots of parties for the holidays. Valentine's was one of the top three best. But then...” He stopped for a moment and grabbed the pink coloring. “A lot of crazy stuff happened. Some people died. I ran away and started my own organization, DICE, and now here I am at Hope's Peak! I wanna do parties again, so everyone can have fun and eat lots of sugar.”

“You didn't have to go and give me your entire back story,” muttered Kaito while putting away the pink icing.

“Eh, I decided you've sacrificed enough to at least hear one of my origin stories. It might not even the true one.”

“Guess I'll just have to choose to believe in your story... it sounds like a sweet thing you're doing for your friends.”

Kokichi felt embarrassed, he focused on stirring the black icing. “They're my underlings! Not friends! And is _that_ what you do? Just pick and choose what's lies and what's truth?”

“Sure! It's all that we _can_ do—to believe in what we want to believe is true. And I've always wanted to believe you're a decent guy deep down, even though you like to piss me off.”

“Careful now~ Don't think we're gonna be best buddies now!” he said, but it didn't sound that menacing. He lifted up the spoon he had and hit Kaito's cheek, leaving a smear of black icing. “After today, we should go back to our usual roles.”

“If that's what you really want...” sighed Kaito. He stored the bowl of black icing and then grabbed the dough out of the freezer. “I'll start rolling these out, you make one more batch of white icing.”

They cut out dozens of circles and hearts out of the dough, and set to work baking them in batches. When the first batch was cooled enough, Kaito got out the frosting and placed them in frosting bags. He grabbed a heart cookie and demonstrated how to outline the cookie and then flood it with icing.

“There's lots of different ways to decorate,” he explained. He grabbed a circle cookie, covered it in white icing, and then added pink drops. “With a toothpick, you can make these dots into little hearts.”

“I want to make smiley faces! Oh, and checkerboard patterns,” said Kokichi. He grabbed the white and black frosting and set to work.

“Fine, when you're done just put them back on the baking sheets. I'm gonna try drying the cookies in the oven at a low temperature. With any luck, it'll harden the frosting a bit.”

The two boys kept working for a while. Kokichi's smiley face cookies had little blue teardrops on them, it made Kaito think of clown masks. Although the smaller boy seemed content with just two designs, Kaito tried to mix it up. He made solid colors, stripes, little hearts, fancy borders, and then he had an idea.

“Hey Ouma! Check this out!” he said as he started icing the edge of a round cookie with black icing. Then he made more circles, one inside the another, with blue, purple, and pink icing. When he reached the center, he filled it with a bit of white icing. He blended the colors a bit with a small spatula, and then he grabbed a toothpick to swirl the icing around. Finally, he added lots of little white dots. The finished effect looked like a starry night sky. He picked up the cookie and held it by his fingertips to show it off. “Here you go! One galaxy cookie by the Luminary of the Stars!”

“Oooh~” muttered Kokichi, he definitely looked impressed. Suddenly he reached out and bit the cookie in half, almost biting Kaito's fingers too.

“HEY! Who said you could eat outta my hand?!” yelled Kaito in embarrassment.

“Nishishi~ Woops! But I had to see if it tasted any good!”

“You've been doubting my baking skills?”

“Mmm... maybe a little bit? But don't worry! It was good!!”

Kaito huffed and went back to work decorating cookies. When a sheet of cookies was filled, Kaito went to the oven to try drying them. He only let them sit for about 15 minutes, at which the frosting crusted a bit. The icing wasn't as hard as it should have been, but since the cookies would be eaten soon enough it hopefully didn't matter too much.

Finally, _finally_ they were done baking. Kaito didn't want to see another sugar cookie for a long time. Kokichi was carefully placing the cookies into boxes that he brought from his room. He looked extremely happy about the end result, with eyes bright and a huge smile.

“I hope those cookies are a big hit,” said Kaito, as he tried not to yawn.

“I'm sure they will!” cheered Kokichi. Then he turned around to face Kaito and gave a cheeky smile. “Oh, but Momota-chan! I almost forgot! I've got something for you!”

“Uh.. you didn't have to do that...”

“No, I insist!! You worked so hard for me! And like I said before, you're an honorary DICE member for just today!” his smile seemed to have gotten wider, and Kaito wasn't sure if he could trust that grin. “Come down here! Just a little closer!”

Kaito knelt down a bit and stared at Kokichi skeptically, but maybe it'd be okay?

Next thing Kaito knew, he was kicked right in the gut and fell to the ground.

“OUMA WHAT THE FUCK?!! Why did you—?!”

“I hit you with all I had!! Just like you said!! Didn't you feel how grateful I was with that kick?” said Kokichi. He had a huge, shit-eating grin now and was waiting for Kaito's next move.

Kaito tried to steady his breathing. “Y-Yeah! I sure felt _something_ alright! You little shit!” He was trying to smile like the other boy always did, was it suppose to hurt his face like this?

“Nishishi!” laughed Kokichi. Then he reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a plastic bag with a couple of cookies. “But here, you can have these! Even if you don't eat lots of sweets, you should at least have some of the ones you helped make.”

“T-Thanks,” muttered Kaito as he grabbed the bag.

Kokichi grabbed the two boxes with care and headed for the door. “I'm going now! And tomorrow, we pretend this never happened! Bye Momota-chan~!!”

“Bye Ouma...” replied Kaito as he stood up. He looked around the kitchen, it was mostly clean expect for some dishes but he could probably leave those in the dishwasher.

Kaito opened the bag of cookies and grabbed one of the smiley face ones. He bit off the smile, it was a pretty good cookie all things considered. Maybe he had gotten to know Kokichi's feelings a bit better today.

“I just hope he doesn't ask for more baking help on White Day,” he chuckled and then headed back to his dorm room.

 


	5. Crepes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 5 - Kokichi and Kaito go to a crepe stall and run into some familiar faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last week I found out that the series has had collabs with a crepe place, and now I've had crepes on the brain.  
> Thanks for the kudos and stuff~

“Aaaand checkmate! Nishi~ I thought you said you played chess before?”

Kaito groaned and rubbed the back of his head. “I totally have played with Jiji, but I didn't think you were a damn pro... This doesn't seem like your kind of game.”

“Then you don't know me very well Momota-chan! I'm rather hurt...”chided Kokichi, wagging a finger at the other boy. “Chess is the kind of strategy game that an evil supreme leader like me _has_ to be good at.”

“So, what you're saying is that I should have challenged you to shogi?”

“Hmm, I've never played that but I could probably pick it up quick!”

“Tch... dammit,” he tsked and started putting chess pieces away. “So, any idea what you want?”

They had been hanging out in the game room that for some reason Hope's Peak had, when Kaito had found a box of chess. He had mentioned how he learned to play from his grandpa, and that was enough for Kokichi to bug him about playing together. Somehow that turned into making a bet, the loser had to buy the other some snack.

“Yep! I know exaaaactly what I want!” exclaimed Kokichi. He slammed his hands on the table, knocking over some chess pieces, and then leaned forward. “I heard there's a crepe stall not far from here that sells really yummy ones~!”

“Ugh, _crepes?_ You heard that from some girl in class, didn't you?” asked Kaito with a grimace.

“Yep! Chabashira-chan was trying to convince Yumeno-chan to go with her last week!”

“Right, cuz those are girls' sweets.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Look if Momota-chan's manliness is _that_ threatened by buying some cute sweets, then I'll go find some shorts or a skirt and borrow a wig from Shirogane-chan. It'll be like you're being a sweetheart buying crepes for your ado~rable girlfriend!”

“Kokichi no! No! You don't gotta fucking dress up!” shouted Kaito, waving his hands frantically.

“Heh, are you sure? I could pretend to be a real cute girl~” he pouted and batted his eyelashes.

“Tch, sure ya could... you're already cutesy,” said Kaito, his face turning a bit pink. “B-But if I was gonna date a girl then I wouldn't be with your sorry ass!”

“Awwwww! That's almost, sorta sweet of you, Momota-chan!” gushed Kokichi. He reached out and pinched Kaito's cheek. “You know what's sweeter though? Crepes! Let's go!!”

With that said, Kokichi stood up and tried to drag Kaito up by the jacket sleeve. The other boy sighed and shook his arm out of Kokichi's grip before getting up on his own. “Fine, fine! A bet's a bet. Let me just go get some money,” said Kaito.

* * *

The crepe place was a small stall decorated in a cute pink color scheme. Up on top in bubbly font was the name Magical★Miracle Crepes. They had a mascot character next to the shop name, a cute magical girl rabbit that was white and pink. On the bottom part of the stall were plastic displays of the different sweet crepes that they served. There was a cardboard cutout of the rabbit mascot holding a crepe and blushing. And of course, there was a bunch of girls waiting in line for their sweets. Kaito could spot maybe 2 or 3 guys in line, but they seemed to be with either their girlfriends or sisters.

“Hey! I spy a familiar set of bratty pigtails,” said Kokichi as he jumped up to the end of the line. “Saionji-chan! And Koizumi-chan too! Fancy seeing you two here~!”

The two girls turned around, Mahiru gave a tired sigh while Hiyoko looked immediately disgusted. “Gross! It's the shitty gremlin!” she said and pretended to gag.

“Nishishi! I guess it takes one to know one, right Saionji-chan?” chuckled Kokichi.

“Shut it!” she hissed, then noticed Kaito walking up to the line too. “I see you brought your space monkey too! You two better not cause any trouble for me and Mahiru again!”

Mahiru tapped the smaller girl's shoulder and gave her a slightly reprimanding look. She turned to Kaito and said, “I never took you for a guy who goes out to buy crepes.”

“I'm not,” sighed Kaito. He ruffled Kokichi's hair and added, “But this guy won a bet so I gotta buy him something, and he wants crepes.”

“Ahh, good on you then!” she said with a smile. “A man should always keep his promises.”

Saionji placed a hand near her mouth and had a playful smirk. “Heh! Poor Ouma has to win a bet just so he can go on a date,” she snickered in a hush voice.

“I guess so...” he pouted for a brief moment but it changed to a sly smile. “But it's fine~ Cuz instead we just spend _a lot_ of time in Momota-chan's room~ Nishishi~”

“EW! GROSS! I don't wanna hear that,” she yelled and covered her ears.

“Y-You've got that wrong! It's not like that,”  whispered Kaito in panic. He smacked the back of Kokichi's head with a bit more force than was probably needed. “Hey, don't joke like that. People might hear you. Besides, you've never even been in my room.”

Mahiru sighed again, she was completely done with these two boys. “Hiyoko-chan, let's just wait in line and ignore the boys, okay?” she said and then turned her back to them, Hiyoko followed suit.

“This is going just great,” huffed Kaito. “Kokichi, what kind of crepe ya want?”

“Mmmmm, I haven't decided,” he said. He tried leaning to the side in an attempt at seeing the displays better. “You can never go wrong with strawberries, but maybe there's something else I'd like? Hey, hey! Saionji-chan! Recommend me something!”

Hiyoko tilted her head back just a bit and glared.

“Aww, come on! I know you have pretty good tastes in sweets!”

“Weeeelll,” she said, tapping a finger to her lips. “My favorites are the ones with azuki bean paste, but I _have_ tried basically the whole menu at least once...”

“Tell me the most expensive one! Nishi~”

“Most are about the same price, but it goes up if you add extra stuff like sponge cake or cheesecake to it!” she said with a cheeky smile. Then she turned her full attention back to Mahiru and started talking about something that “that skank Tsumiki” did in class.

Kaito balked at the thought of spending a ton of money on a single crepe. “Kokichi, I'm not made of money so don't get any bright ideas.”

The line kept moving, but Kokichi felt that it was taking forever. He hopped around or leaned to the side to try seeing the front of the line. Kaito thought it was sorta cute, sorta annoying... but it got more annoying when Kokichi started to whine. “Ugh! Can't they hurry up?! What's taking so loooo~ng?” The supreme leader would complain every once in a while, and when Mahiru shot Kaito an annoyed look he got the message and tried to cover up Kokichi's mouth with his hand.

“Keep your trap shut or I'll drag you straight back to school without buying a damn thing,” he growled.

Kokichi looked up with big, watery eyes. When that didn't work he licked the hand placed over his mouth, which made Kaito pull back in slight disgust. “Hah! Ok, ok. I promise I'll be good for dear Momota-chan~” he cooed.

“Hmph, your promises ain't worth much,” said Kaito. He pointed to the line and added. “But look, it's almost our turn.”

Mahiru and Hiyoko had reached the front and were ordering now. “Hm, I guess I'll get the Strawberry-Banana this time, what do you want Hiyoko-chan?”

“I waaaant...” she dragged out her words as she scanned the displays. “Theee uh...”

Kokichi groaned loudly, earning a small shove from Kaito.

“Oh! I know! The strawberries and azuki with ice cream!” said Hiyoko happily. “Can it be strawberry ice cream though? Oh! Oh! And make it cute with extra whipped cream!! Pretty please!”

The employee nodded and took their money, then set to work making their sweets. She started with Mahiru's order first, since it was simpler, and then wrapped it in cute pink paper that had bunny faces on it. Next came Hiyoko's order, and when the worker added the extra whip cream, she styled some of it to look like bunny ears and a face on top of the scoop of strawberry ice cream. The two girls happily got their crepes and started walking off. Mahiru waved bye at the boys, while Hiyoko stuck her tongue out (Kokichi stuck his tongue back at her).

“Welcome, gentlemen! What can I get you?” said the employee in a cheery voice. She had a white apron with a pink logo as well as a pink bandana on her head.

“Uh... I want...” muttered Kokichi. He bit his lip and stared at the displays.

Kaito rolled his eyes and tapped his foot impatiently. He nudged the smaller boy. “Come on, make it quick.”

“I want... double choco-banana with sponge cake!” said Kokichi triumphantly. “Oh, and this guy will try the green tea azuki one!”

“H-Huh? Wait a damn sec, don't go ordering for me!”

“But you wouldn't have ordered anything,” pointed out Kokichi. He turned to the employee and told her, “My poor buddy here lived his whole life not allowed to eat sweets! It's so sad!”

“Don't lie to the lady!” shouted Kaito. Still, he pulled out money for 2 crepes. “I'll try the green tea but Miss, can ya not add a lot of cream?”

“Of course!” she nodded and grabbed the money.

It was pretty neat to watch her make the crepes. The employee poured batter onto a hot griddle and then spun a tool around to shape the batter into a lovely circle. When it was done cooking, she moved it to another table and started adding in the fillings. She made Kokichi's crepe first, switching the usual whip cream for a chocolate variant and adding chocolate syrup to the bananas. She finished up and handed over the crepe to Kokichi. Then she started on the next crepe, just as it finished cooking there was a scream that startled the employee.

“GAHH! There's hair on my crepe!!” yelled Kokichi in disgust.

“W-What?! Ohmygosh! I-I'm so so—” the employee stuttered.

“Wait a sec!” shouted Kaito. He faced the other boy and pointed an accusing finger at him. “You little brat, you gotta be lying! Her head's all covered up with that bandana!”

“Ehhh, don't rat me out like that Momota-chan!” whined Kokichi. “I was trying to get you a discount!”

“Ugh, please excuse my friend over there,” apologized Kaito. “He thinks he can get away with anything.”

“Hah, hah..I-I see...” awkwardly chuckled the employee. She finished making the second crepe and handed it over with a half smile. “H-Have a nice day!”

“Thanks,” said Kaito. He gave the poor worker a tip and then dragged Kokichi away. They started walking back to Hope's Peak.

“Well! This was a fun lil date~” said Kokichi in between bites of his crepe.

“You were about to scare the shit out of that poor worker,” muttered Kaito.

“It's her fault for believing me! But I guess I feel a little bad for teasing someone who made such a tasty sweet.... Do you like what I recommended, Momota-chan?”

“Hmm, it tastes pretty good,” he nodded and ate a spoonful of green tea ice cream.

“Good! I'd hate to make my dear hero eat something he didn't like!”

“.....Kokichi, last week you put wasabi in my lunch cuz you thought it'd be funny.”

“Aww, you still upset over that? Nishishi, but the face you made _was_ really entertaining!”

Kaito sighed, his boyfriend was such a handful to deal with all the time. It was stressful... but not at all boring. When there weren't any other people walking down the street, Kaito grabbed hold of Kokichi's arm to stop him and leaned down to kiss the smaller boy. His lips were a bit cold and sweet from the chocolate ice cream. When Kaito pulled back, Kokichi looked annoyed and was trying not to blush.

“What was that for Momota-chan?” pouted Kokichi. “I don't like the taste of green tea and azuki...”

“Hah! Sorry about that, but you're mouth was covered in chocolate,” smirked Kaito. He ruffled the other boy's hair. “Maybe don't be such a messy eater?”

Kokichi mumbled halfheartedly about not liking liars, but took a large bite out of his crepe and started talking about some prank he wanted to pull later. They talked about random stuff as they headed back to the school.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I really like writing saionji? she's fun kinda like ouma, but in the past I didn't think too much of her bc of her minor role in the 2nd game


	6. Chocolate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 6 - It's White Day and Kaito has to give someone a return gift. He just wished he knew who that person was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhello, been dealing with writer's block & general laziness. but I didn't wanna pass up the opportunity to write something silly for White Day!  
> Originally I thought to make this a sequel to the Vday ones, but then I decided against that. Still, hope you all enjoy this lil thing.

Kaito stared at the store display in front of him. It was decorated with white and blue roses and showcased pretty boxes of chocolate. Practically the entire mall had similar displays for jewelry, sweets, clothes, and other kinds of presents that girls would probably love. With a frustrated sigh, he walked into the store. The clerk gave a cheery “Welcome!” to which Kaito gave a half hearted wave. He didn't really want to be doing this, but it seemed like the right thing to do. On Valentine's Day someone had given him chocolates, so of course Kaito had to return the favor now that it was White Day. The only problem was that Kaito didn't really know who this person even was.

Back in February, Kaito had found a red gift bag hanging from his dorm room door. Inside it was a box of assorted chocolates and a strange note. It honestly looked like one of those ransom notes made from letters cut out of different magazines, but it also had lots of little hearts taped around it.

_To: Kaito Momota_

_Happy Valentine's Day!! This present is from your secret admirer!! ♥ I guess here is the part I say a ton of sappy stuff about how cool you are... but honestly you're ego is pretty big as is! But I think I like you anyway...??_

_I'm expecting a White Day present of course!! & it better be worth 3 times what I got you!!_

_Oh... but you don't know who I am... well on White Day just come to the observatory tower at 10 PM and I'll be there!_

_If I don't get a return gift, I'll be so so sad and heartbroken.... :(_

The chocolate actually wasn't that bad. Granted, Kaito had only eaten a few pieces before getting fed up of the sugar. But it all seemed like a nice enough gesture by whoever this mystery admirer was. A part of him wanted to suspect Shuichi or Maki but it seemed really weird for either of them to go about it this way. So Kaito decided he'd just confront this person! He'd give them the expected return gift, and then tell them he wasn't interested. He bought a box of fancy white chocolate and got it gift wrapped. Now he just had to wait until later tonight.

Hope's Peak had a little of everything in the pursuit of researching talents, so of course it would have a mini observatory. Naturally Kaito loved hanging out in that place, but there were a fair number of other students who had space-related talents so the place was almost never empty. Being alone here at night could be slightly spooky, but Kaito was totally in his element here. He tried to feel for the light switch, when suddenly there was a loud bang and the sound of glass crashing in the room that almost made Kaito squeak in terror.

“Woopsie! Hope that wasn't anything super important~” said a familiar cheeky voice in the dark.

Kaito found a switch and part of the room was lit up. A few feet in front of him was Kokichi. The smaller boy had seemingly hit himself on a table and caused some test tubes to fall down.

“Ouma?! What the fuck, why were you in the dark?” wondered Kaito.

“To jump out and yell BOO, naturally!” said Kokichi. He carefully sidestepped the glass and walked over to Kaito. “But wow, you actually remembered that weird Valentine note and followed its instructions! I'm so proud of you!”

“W-Wait, you know about the note? So you mean—”

“Nishishi!” snickered Kokichi. He then threw his arms up in the air and in a grand voice said, “That's right! I'm Momota-chan's secret admirer!”

“.....You really expect me to believe that?” deadpanned Kaito.

“Sure! I mean... Momota-chan is ss-such a _g-great_ _guy_ ,” his words came out forced. He waved a hand in the air, searching for the words to say. “You're like... really really awesome and... and stuff.”

Kaito rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I'm really feeling the love right now. Whatever, I'd have turned down whoever it was that sent that present. Guess you saved me some trouble, here's your damn chocolate.”

Kokichi grabbed the box and started tearing the wrapping with excitement. He slowed down once the rest of Kaito's words sunk in. “Wait,” he looked up in confusion. “You're just gonna friend-zone me? Your secret admirer?”

“Uhh, I guess you could call it that?” he shrugged and walked over to the control panel. “Although, we ain't exactly the best of pals to begin with. Plus, you're totally lying.”

“I'm hurt, Momota-chan,” said the smaller boy. He placed the half-open gift towards his heart and sniffled. “You're killing me of heartbreak. I hope you're proud of yourself.”

“Oh come on, don't fucking lie about a dumb thing like this,” replied Kaito. He flicked a few switches and part of the dome roof opened up, revealing the lovely starry sky. “I don't know how the hell you managed to get this place emptied out, but I'm gonna enjoy the view for awhile. You do you, I guess.”

Kaito went to sit down and looked up at the sky. For a couple of moments, there was silence and then he heard footsteps. He almost thought Kokichi had left the place, but soon enough the supreme leader was sitting beside him and munching on chocolate.

“....These are good, want some?” asked Kokichi. He shoved the box of white chocolate towards Kaito's face.

“Hmph, thanks I guess,” said Kaito. He grabbed a piece of chocolate without looking away from the sky. “So... did you just want free candy or something? 'Cuz saying you've got a crush on me or whatever is kinda half-ass for a prank. It'd be more believable if you tried that with Shuichi.”

Kokichi didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to stuff more chocolate in his mouth. “....Actually the Valentine's candy was the real prank. Didn't you notice one of the chocolates was spiked with hot sauce?”

“What?!” Kaito turned to Kokichi, who was now smirking. “Did you really fucking try that?”

“Aww, you don't believe me,” pouted the smaller boy. “That means you didn't finish eating them... I'm even more heartbroken now...”

“Ugh, quit sounding so sad. You just admitted you wanted me to eat shitty chocolate,” said Kaito. There was a part of him that realized Kokichi could easily be lying about the whole hot sauce thing, and there wouldn't be a sure way of knowing the truth. He had thrown away the rest of the uneaten valentine's chocolate right at the end of February. But he didn't want to entertain that thought for long, because if there was no hot sauce prank... then was there a chance Kokichi had been sincere?

“Hey, Momota-chan!” Kokichi pulled on the other boy's jacket sleeve to catch their attention. “Tell me something about what I'm staring at! Like, show me a constellation or something!”

“Fuck, you're not gonna leave are ya? Fine, go get one of the telescopes,” sighed Kaito. “You might be able to see Jupiter tonight, and I'll show you some other cool shit too.”

Kokichi shoved the box of candy into Kaito's hands before running off to find the telescopes. This might not be an awful way to spend time. Not everyday Kaito got to show off his space knowledge, much less to someone like Kokichi. It almost seemed romantic, stargazing on White Day...

“HEY! HEADS UP!!”

“W-What—?!” stuttered Kaito, his thoughts were interrupted when a telescope case came flying his way. He dropped the chocolates in his haste to catch the telescope. “What the ever-loving _fuck_ Ouma?! Don't go throwing this around!! Shit's expensive!!”

Okay, maybe scratch the romance thing. Kaito would be lucky if he got to leave here without some kind of injury.

 


	7. Hi-Chews

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 7 - A young Kaito shares candy with someone he meets at the beach. Merfolk AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so begins the oneshots with AUs outside of them being in high school. I got this idea last night, stayed up really late, and still didn't finish until today evening. ^^;; hhhh will probably check for mistakes later

Every summer, Kaito's mother liked to visit her hometown to spend a week with her parents. They lived in a quiet, seaside town where her father made his living as a fisherman. For a little boy, it was frustrating to miss out on most of his favorite super sentai and anime (there was a TV but it didn't have the channels a kid would love) but Kaito did his best to have fun with what he had. Always bringing some of his action figures on these trips, Kaito liked to reenact his favorite battles or come up with his own. He had a very active imagination, coming up with adventures in which he was a treasure hunter or super hero. Kaito liked to play all around the traditional-styled home that was so much bigger than his parents' apartment in the city. The backyard was nice too; with a little bamboo forest where Kaito would look for cool bugs to catch. The most fun he had were perhaps the trips to the beach that the whole family took. Kaito loved to play volleyball or tennis with his dad, swim around and learn to hold his breath, eat all the food his mom and grandma made, and sometimes he got to take a ride on his grandpa's boat. So the early years of Kaito's childhood went by and things seemed pretty idyllic.

When Kaito was around 8, that's when he first noticed the cracks in his parents' relationship. He picked up on the sometimes curt conversations tinged with anger between them. He saw how his mom would glare at the door whenever her husband came home from work later than usual. The empty glass bottles that lingered around the apartment carried a gross smell that made Kaito gag. It was only a matter a time before Kaito was witness to his parents fighting and yelling; his dad started throwing around beer bottles. Kaito was terrified, but he felt the need to be strong and protect his mom. It finally reached a boiling point one day when Kaito rushed to his mom kneeling on the floor, and when he chewed out his dad he was smacked.

After that, things seemed to move really fast. Kaito learned what “divorce” meant and while he was glad to be away from that old man, it also meant he and his mom had to move away. They tried to find an apartment but things weren't going their favor, so Kaito was sent to live with his grandparents. Meanwhile, his mother stayed in the city to find work and could only rarely visit. At first he had hated the idea of it all. It was one thing to stay for a week but another thing all together to make him leave everything he knew behind. Kaito cried and yelled that he didn't want to leave his friends at school. He even threw in some words that he heard his parents use when they fought. His grandpa slapped him and said that a man shouldn't cry over something so trivial. Kaito dried his tears and tried to adjust to his new life.

A couple months passed and Kaito turned 10, his grandparents thought it was a decent age to let him walk around on his own and do a few errands. Mostly Kaito just ran to the grocery store when they were out of milk or eggs, but he liked being helpful in any way that he could. Plus, he got to keep the change and buy something for himself every once in a while. One day, he bought a bag of assorted Hi-Chew candies and, after he gave his grandma the groceries, Kaito decided to go to the beach. There was a rock jetty that he had found a few weeks back, where no one ever went out to. He carefully walked through the rocks, his arms stretched out to try and keep balance. Finally he reached a decent spot to sit down.

“Okay! Time to dig it!” exclaimed Kaito as he tried to open the candy bag. He ended up pulling at a corner with his teeth, and quickly made a large rip into the bag. A few pieces of candy went flying out. Kaito tried to pick up the individually wrapped candies, but the wind picked up and 2 or 3 candies rolled down into the water. “A-Ah!! Darn it...”

Kaito pouted a bit, but at least he still had the rest of his candy to enjoy. He settled down to enjoy his sweets, when suddenly a cherry Hi-Chew that had fallen into the water was thrown back up onto the rocks. _'What the heck?'_ wondered Kaito, purple eyes fixed on the candy. _'How did that—'_

There was a splash next to Kaito, and suddenly he heard a boy's voice yelling, “HEY! It's bad to litter!! Don't you know the giant sea monster will get you?”

He stared at a boy around his age, who was swimming a short distance away. The boy had long, wavy black-purple hair and his eyes were a darker shade than Kaito's. In contrast to Kaito's light tan, the boy had very pale skin, so much so that it was surprising he didn't have a sunburn. In one of his hands was a grape Hi-Chew.

“A sea monster?” said Kaito skeptically. “There's no such thing!”

“There totally is a sea monster!” said the boy. He crossed his arms behind his head and grinned. “Are you an expert on the mysteries of the ocean?”

“U-Uh no... but my grandpa is a fisherman! Jiji would have told me about any sea monsters!” replied Kaito. 

“What if your gramps lost a fight to a sea monster and decided to never tell anyone?”

“Nuh-uh! No way! Jiji wouldn't lose to a sea monster! He'd turn it into sushi!”

“Oh really? But I was lying, sea monsters aren't real! Can't make sushi out of something that doesn't exist! Nishishi!” The boy laughed.

“I _knew_ that from the start!” huffed Kaito. This kid was getting on his nerves real quick.

“Awww, don't get all grouchy. Don't you want this back?” asked the boy, waving the little Hi-Chew around.

“Not really... I've got more, so you can have it I guess.”

The boy looked at the candy and smiled. “Gee! Thanks! Too bad I don't know what this is!”

Kaito opened one of his own candies before turning to the other in bewilderment. “Seriously? You've never eaten Hi-Chews before?”

“You eat this? All I ever eat is fish and other seafood,” said the boy while fumbling to rip the wrapper. He eyed the piece of white and purple candy with some minor apprehension, before popping it into his mouth. His face went blank.

“Uh... so do you like it?” asked Kaito after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah, it's really good.”

“Are you lying? 'Cuz you're not acting like it's good!”

“I'm not lying... it's good,” said the boy, slowly chewing on the candy. He had a pensive look on his face. “I've never tasted something like this. I don't know how to describe the taste.”

“Dude, it's just grape and sugar.”

“Hmmm...”

Kaito was a little weirded out by this kid, but they seemed like a nice enough person. He looked down at the rest of his candies. While he liked sweets on occasion, he wasn't a huge sugar fan and he'd probably get fed up from eating the rest of them. Should he offer some more to this kid?

“Hey! Hey! Here's the plastic! Give me more of those hee-chus!” exclaimed the boy. He tried to swim a little closer and held out the empty wrapper.

“They're called Hi-Chews,” said Kaito. He stretched out to grab the wrapper. “And okay, ya want grape again or want a different flavor?”

“Different! I wanna try them all!”

“Alright! This one is green apple.” He threw a green candy and the boy caught it. “Um, I'm Kaito Momota. What's your name?”

“Hmm? Me?” said the boy, already chewing on the candy. He grinned and raised his arms up. “Why I'm the great Poseidon! King of the ocean!”

“No you aren't! Poseidon has a cool trident! I saw it in a book once!”

“I left my trident at home. Another candy please, Momota-chan!”

Kaito stopped before he threw another candy. “M-Momota-chan?! Don't call me that!”

“Ehh?? But that's your name, isn't it? Hurry up with the candy, Momota-chan!”

“Don't use -chan, that's girly!” Kaito scowled and threw a Hi-Chew. “And here you go _your Highness_ , that one's cherry.”

The boy chewed on the sweet happily. “Thanks Momota-chan! My name's Kokichi Ouma.”

“You aren't gonna drop the -chan thing, are ya? Fiiine, I guess it's still nice to meet ya.”

Kokichi held out his hands for another piece of candy and was given a strawberry one. “Are you from around here, Momota-chan? Or visiting someone?”

“I moved in with my grandparents back in January. I used to only visit in the summer.”

“That's awful! Nothing goes on here for most of the year!”

“It's... not too bad,” said Kaito half-heartedly. He tried to smile when he threw a melon candy to Kokichi, but it looked forced. “Sure, most of the kids here don't like me 'cuz I'm from the city and I picked a fight with some idiots, but I can have fun on my own!”

“Why did you get into a fight?”

What little smile he had on his face quickly dropped. Kaito looked down at the candies in his lap and said, “They pissed me off... these older guys kept saying awful stuff about Momma. That she dumped me in the boonies and ran off with some man.” He slapped his hands on the rocks. “It's all damn lies!! They don't know  _shit!_ My old man is the bad guy! Momma says he's a drunk, cheating bastard!” Kaito wasn't suppose to use words like those, but once he heard them at home they tended to slip out when he got really angry. 

A few moments of silence passed between the two boys. “....Did you beat up those idiots real good?” whispered Kokichi.

“A-Ahh I s-sure did! I beat them so bad they went crying to _their_ mommas!” Kaito hit his fists together and tried to look tough.

“Nishishi! Good job!” A large grin was on his face.

Kaito wondered if Kokichi could tell that he was lying. What had really happened was that Kaito got in one kick to a guy's balls before one the bigger boys grabbed him by the arms. It had been a very unfair fight that ended when a teacher had found them. He sighed and ate a peach Hi-Chew before giving Kokichi his own piece. “Anyways, how come I ain't see you around school, Ouma?”

“I don't go to school.”

“Really? And I've never seen you around town either...”

“My house is kinda far away.”

“Oh....” mumbled Kaito. It seemed like Kokichi was turning out to be a weirder kid than he expected. Unless Kokichi was lying. Which, given his short track record so far, it could go either way. Kaito picked up another Hi-Chew. “Hey Ouma, why don't you come over here and sit down? It'd be easier to share candy.”

“I can't.”

“Uhh, what do you mean?”

“I can't get on the rocks.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have a fish tail instead of legs.”

He stared at Kokichi in confusion before blurting out, “HAH?!? What kind of lie is that?!” 

“I'm not lying!” pouted Kokichi. “Look!”

Kokichi turned to float on his back and lifted the lower part of his body. Kaito gasped when, instead of a pair of legs, he saw that Kokichi had a fish tail colored white with black bands. The smaller boy moved the tail up and down, then he swam backstroke in a circle. He laughed at the way Kaito's mouth hanged open. 

“No way! You're a real mermaid?!” exclaimed Kaito. He edged himself closer to the water, trying to get a better look. “That isn't like a fake tail or something?”

“Of course it's real! Why doesn't Momota-chan believe me?” Kokichi looked like he was offended, but then he quickly dived into the water and came out with a smile. “Oh, but I'm a merboy. I guess you could also say merperson or something? Nishi~”

“Alright... that's pretty cool. I didn't know merpeople were real.”

“We're not suppose to let humans see us, but I was just _soooo_ bored! And Momota-chan looked fun to mess with.”

“H-Hey! Don't mess with me!”

“Nishishi~ Okay I'll be good. You gonna give me more candy? I like grape the most so far.”

Kaito nodded and threw another purple candy. “Ouma, what's it like living in the ocean? Do you have lots of adventures?”

Kokichi chewed the candy slowly and picked at his nails. “It's alright... swim around a lot... talk to fish... eat the fish... look for treasures—”

“Treasure? Like sunken pirate treasure?!”

“But of course! I've found some abandoned ships before, but other people must have already taken most of the treasures. I've found some old coins though.”

“Still that's so cool...” sighed Kaito. He laid down on his stomach and propped his head on his hands. “A while ago I found a treasure map in the attic.”

“Oh? Where does it lead?”

“I'm not sure... some island I guess. I wanna take Jiji's boat one day and go find it.”

“I might know of a tiny island or two around here.”

“You can come with me! I could use a sidekick!” Kaito beamed brightly. 

“Eeeh? But if I'm leading the way, then shouldn't _you_ be the sidekick?”

“Hmm, we can talk about the details later,” said Kaito. He moved one hand and started separating the remaining grape Hi-Chews from the other flavors. “Someday I wanna go on a ton of adventures and be a hero. I'll travel through land, sea, and air to beat up all the wicked people. Then I'll go even higher than the clouds!”

“Higher than the clouds?” echoed Kokichi. 

Kaito sat up and pointed to the sky. “Yeah! One day I'll go to outer space! And see all the universe's mysteries!”

“Woah that's pretty far away from here...” Kokichi tried to look up but had to shield his eyes from the sun's rays. He let out a sigh and splashed his arms back into the water. “I guess I'll just be here... swimming around like always.”

“Oumaaa! You can come with me too!”

“Uh, did Momota-chan forget I'm part fish? Nishi~”

“Doesn't matter! You can't give up!” Kaito placed his hands on either side of his waist. “I'll figure something out! Even if I gotta find a huge fish tank and carry you around, you should get to have fun too!”

“That sounds like a stupid plan,” said Kokichi, he laughed a little when Kaito scowled. “Heh, thanks for the offer but it's not really possible.”

“No! No! I've already decided!” yelled Kaito. He extended his hand towards the smaller boy. “Kokichi! You're gonna be my adventure partner one way or another! We gotta shake on it!”

Kokichi stared at the hand for a while. His face was blank of any feelings. Eventually he reached out and shook the other boy's hand (it felt slimy but Kaito tried not to show that it grossed him out). “Okay, it's a deal.”

“Awesome!” Kaito smiled brightly. He let go of Kokichi's hand and then picked up the grape Hi-Chews. “Here, you can have the rest of these. I should probably be heading back home now. But let's meet again and play real soon, 'kay?”

“All right, but Momota-chan should bring more of those candies!” 

“Hah! I'll try to buy some! Maybe they still have the limited Panta flavors.”

“Whatever that is, I hope it's yummy.”

Kaito laughed and waved goodbye to his new friend. “See ya later, Kokichi!”

The little merboy watched as the other boy walked across the rocks and then ran through the sandy beach. He looked down at the grape Hi-Chews cupped in his hands and smiled softly. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouma is technically meant to be a white/black clownfish. It was either that or a seahorse ww


	8. Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 8 - Sometimes you just wanna ignore the bad stuff that happens and eat some ice cream. Vampire AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ffff hello again! I've been trying to work on different prompts but end up feeling they don't work for this series so I drop them. I think I like this though...  
> As always, thank you all for the kudos and nice words!! I've got at least 3 more ideas I want to try to write for this series, one of which is a part 2 of the merfolk AU ^^ Hopefully they all get written out and posted.

It was late in the evening; somewhere around 6 to 7 PM judging by the variety TV show that Kaito had on as background noise. He was lounging on the sofa with a math textbook propped on his legs. On the ground was a pile of books and a half-eaten bowl of ice cream sitting on top of them. There was a statistics exam coming up and he was reviewing over some topics.

_Ding dong._

Kaito looked up towards the front door. He wasn't expecting anyone to stop by today. If it was either Shuichi or Maki at the door then they would have notified him first, but he checked his cellphone and didn't find any miss calls or texts. Maybe it was some door-to-door salesman trying to sell him shit. Or the landlord. Either possibility wasn't someone that Kaito felt like seeing right now.

_Ding dong. Ding dong. Dingdingdingdongdingdongdingdingdon—_

The math book was forcefully shut and thrown to the floor. “Ughh! What the fuck?!” he yelled in exasperation before getting up and heading to the door. That incessant ringing was going to drive him to murder whoever was standing outside. He went to open the door and yell at whoever it was but—

“Honey! I'm home!!”

There was a loud _pop_ sound and suddenly confetti and streamers were flying into his face. “GAAAAHHHH!!” Kaito stumbled backwards from the shock and fell on his ass. That was definitely going to hurt his pride.

“Nishishi! This thing is way more louder than I expected!”

Kaito froze. That voice. It had been a long while since he last heard that voice and that dumb laugh. He looked up at the figure in front of him, and sure enough it was Kokichi with a confetti cannon under his arm. If Kaito wasn't freaking out right now, then he might have seen that oddly tight-lipped smile and thought it was out of place on the supreme leader's face. He clumsily got up from the tile floor.

“W-Wha—?! How—?!! B-But y—!” he stammered. He could feel his hands shaking.

“Hmm? What is it Momo-chan?” asked Kokichi, in a tone one would use to talk to a puppy or a child. “Come on! Use your big words!!”

“Y-Y-You— _Ouma!!_ ”

“That's me! Now, you gonna invite me in?”

Trying to calm himself down, Kaito took off his reading glasses and facepalmed. “Man, what the fuck?” he groaned as his hand slumped back down. “I thought you were just angry and left for a day or two, but it was like you disappeared off the face of the Earth! I even told Shuichi about us dating so he'd help find a lead on what the fuck happened to you. ”

Kokichi seemed surprised for a moment, but then hid it under a thin smile. “Aww, thanks for worrying about me. Is Momo-chan gonna invite me in or am I gonna have to shoot you with another confetti cannon?”

“Why should I? You're nothing but fucking trouble.” He closed the door partway and glared down.

“If you really thought that, then we wouldn't have lasted even a week together,” said Kokichi while pouting. “Come on! My dear Momo-chan, let's kiss and make up! It's not like I _wanted_ to leave you like that...”

“Okay, so what happened that night?”

“I'll tell you once you invite me in.”

He groaned in frustration but stepped aside. “Tsk, fine, sure whatever, come on in,”

“Nishishi~ Boy, am I lucky that I decided to date a dummy like you! That's okay though, it's part of your charm!”

As Kokichi strolled into the apartment and took off his shoes, Kaito shook off the bits of colorful paper that were still stuck on his tank top and hair. “Don't start with that crap. If you don't explain what the hell happened then I'm kicking you out.”

“Well you see: DICE pissed off some foreign mafia boss so I had to go off the grid, but that's a lie,” he said flippantly, without meeting Kaito's gaze. He set down a backpack on the floor and wandered off. “Hey, is that ice cream?”

_'There he goes again...'_ Closing the door behind him, Kaito headed into the living room to find the tiny leader sitting on the sofa with the bowl on his lap. By now, the leftover ice cream had turned into cold, goopy soup. Even so, Kokichi was scarfing it down like it was the best meal he'd ever have. Now that the initial shock had worn off, Kaito tried sorting his thoughts out. Never had he felt more pissed off (yet so damn relieved) to see the little shit that is Kokichi Ouma. It had been over a month since Kokichi had just walked out and didn't return, but here he was again as if nothing had happened! Kokichi was even wearing the same oversized galaxy hoodie that he had “borrowed” from Kaito the last time he was here. As he quietly observed the other guy, something rather trivial dawned on Kaito.

“Hold up, you don't even like azuki ice cream.”

Violet eyes looked up (was it Kaito's imagination or was there something off putting about his eyes?) and Kokichi slurped another spoonful of melting pink ice cream. “I haven't eaten in like two weeks,” he said before just grabbing the bowl and drinking the rest.

“What? You gotta be lying!”

“Momo-chan doesn't believe me?” he sniveled. “But look at me—I'm paler than a ghost! I'm all skin and bones!”

Kaito was about to point out that Kokichi had always sorta looked like he was half-dead, but then he hesitated. It was harder to tell with that huge hoodie on him, but Kokichi did seem rather malnourished. His cheeks were sunken in and his lips were pale. Had he lost weight too?

“Okay, then I'll go make dinner—”

“No! Momo-chan's cooking will just make me throw up.”

“H-Hey! Since when did you have a problem with my cooking?!”

“Mmm, well to be honest it's almost all food right now,” he said before wiping his mouth with the jacket sleeve. “This ice cream might make me sick too but—” He came to a sudden halt in his words as he turned his attention to the TV. “Oh, hey I love this show!”

“That was one hell of a topic switch,” said Kaito before sitting beside Kokichi with a scowl. “Okay, real talk right now. Did you get sick while you were off who knows where?”

“Yep! The truth is that I got food poisoning and have been in a coma for the past month.”

“Kokichi. Enough with the jokes,” he said sternly. “I was _actually_ fucking worried about you!” He had started to raise his voice, but caught himself. He blew through his nose and calmed down a little. “I wasn't sure if you got fed up with me or if you were seriously hurt somewhere. Both options were awful and—”

“I could never get fed up with Momo-chan!” said Kokichi with a shocked expression. “No one else is stupid enough to fight me on my bullshit like you do. I'd miss it too much.”

“I guess I'll take that as a compliment.” He started to lean in, but Kokichi smacked his face away with the spoon. Kaito scowled. “Oi, what gives?”

“Hold on, I still gotta tell you what happened.” A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He glared down at the empty bowl in his lap. His brows were furrowed. “I wish I could keep lying about it, but any idiot will be able to figure it out eventually.”

Kaito didn't know where this conversation was heading, but he nodded anyway. It seemed like the usual jokester was finally willing to talk about things more seriously.

“But first!” exclaimed Kokichi before abruptly standing up. “I'm going to get more ice cream!”

“I thought you were sick or something?” wondered Kaito as Kokichi ran off into the kitchen.

He came back with a pint of cookie and cream ice cream. “Yeah, I technically am,” responded Kokichi before eating a spoonful of the frozen treat. “But a lotta crazy shit went down, I deserve some fucking ice cream.”

“Alriiight then...”

“Okay so! When I ran off that night, I _did_ get into an accident.” He began telling his story. “I'll spare you the details, but it was basically a hit and run.”

“W-Wait—” Kaito jumped to speak up but a spoonful of ice cream was shoved towards his mouth.

“Ahem, there will be plenty of time for questions after I'm done,” chided Kokichi. Seeing that the astronaut trainee wasn't going to eat the ice cream, he ate it himself. “Any~waaays! It was really late at night and super scary! I thought that was the end of the great Supreme Leader! How pathetic, right? But then this gothic lolita lady walked up to me and started talking...”

> _“Oh, you poor boy...” she said, but in that fake sympathetic tone used by people when they think they're better than you. Her red eyes were super creepy; she was definitely planning something. “Don't worry dearie, I'll help you...”_

At this point, Kokichi stops his story and pensively stares at the carton pint. He eats one last big bite of ice cream before blurting out, “Then she turned me into a vampire and took me to her place.”

Kaito blinked owlishly at the smaller male. Then he chuckled nervously. “Hahah... man, I thought you were gonna be serious about this.”

“I knew you would try to say I'm lying,” sighed Kokichi. “But I swear on my honor as a liar, that I'm telling the truth right now! A vampire lady saved me and wanted me to be her cute vampire butler! Look! I'll even show you proof!”

Before Kaito could say anything, Kokichi took off his checkered neckerchief and pulled down on the hoodie's collar. He moved a little closer so that Kaito could see the two pinpricks on his neck. A chill ran down Kaito's spine and he averted his gaze from the supposed bite mark. He always thought that this world had to full of weird, creepy shit that couldn't be explained by normal means. It didn't mean he had to like any of the said creepy shit. Still, a part of him wanted to believe this was part of an elaborate prank by Kokichi. He could only think of one way to check for sure; so Kaito reached out and placed his index and middle fingers on the tiny leader's neck.

“Momo-chan, you're shaking really badly,” pointed out Kokichi. “I know you get scared, but—”

“S-Shut up,” he grunted. He was turning paler by the second, and then he cursed out, “S-Shit w-where's your damn p-pulse?!”

Kokichi smiled sadly before lifting up a scoop of ice cream towards Kaito. “Eat this. Sweet stuff always makes people feel better.”

“W-Wait, is that why you've been eating a ton since you got back?”

“Noooo, I've just been really craving ice cream! Nishishi!” he laughed and briefly flashed sharp fangs. It caused Kaito to recoil away and Kokichi looked regretful. “That was a lie though... Now come on and eat this.”

“O-Okay,” muttered Kaito. He finally gave up searching for a nonexistent pulse. Kokichi sat back down on the sofa and took turns feeding one another the icy treat.

“You know Kaito,” said Kokichi before eating a scoop. “Remember when I told you that you would never be able to get rid of me?”

“Uhhh, yeah. It was when I asked you out for the first time... You're point?”

“Now you know I wasn't lying! Since I came back from the dead and all!”

Kaito almost choked. “Y-Yeah, that's one way of thinking about it. But dammit, don't bring up the being d-dead thing so easily.”

“Aww, but I thought I said something romantic....”

So many concerns were in his head (he knew the whole drinking blood thing would become a problem soon), but Kaito tried to push them away for now. He just wanted to enjoy some ice cream with his tiny boyfriend. This wasn't even Kaito's favorite flavor, but right now the bits of cookie tasted delicious.

 


	9. Cotton Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chp 9 - Kokichi wanted to hang out with Shuichi at the summer festival, instead he's gotta make do with Kaito.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here, please take it, i'm so tired of looking at this. i've got like 3 drafts w/ a summer festival theme and they're all kinda different, this is the only version that has like bits of one-sided saiouma for some reason?? i sorta just gave up by the end, but i still like most of what i wrote ^^;; oh, & btw i may have this hc that kaito falls somewhere in the ace spectrum, so that sorta influenced some of his dialogue. maybe one day i'll write something that really delves into that hc 
> 
> thanks for reading~~

“Saihara-chaaan! Fancy running into you!”

Shuichi jumped slightly at the sound of that chipper tone, he almost dropped the yukata that was in his arms. He turned his head and saw his classmate, Kokichi Ouma, walking towards him with a large grin.

“Hello Ouma-kun,” said Shuichi as he placed the yukata back on the rack. “Are you out shopping too?”

“Don’t be silly, supreme leaders don’t need to shop,” his voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ll just take whatever I want.”

“You’re not a thief.”

“Nishishi, you can’t prove it one way or another Mr. Detective~”

Shuichi sighed tiredly, and he returned to flipping through yukata patterns. “Well,  _ I’m  _ here to shop so I can’t really talk right now.”

“I bet something with thin stripes would look good on you!” said the smaller boy. He disappeared into the racks of clothes. “Hmmmm…. this one? No. Maybe this? Nope… Oh! This one’s perfect! Matches your hat and emo aesthetic!”

“Emo?” echoed the detective boy as he grabbed the yukata handed to him. It was a dark blue yukata with thin white stripes. “Oh, this is actually pretty nice. I’ll consider it, thank you.”

“No worries! If I’m gonna go with Saihara-chan to the festival, I gotta make sure you look good!”

“Um… we’re not going together.”

Kokichi’s expression wilted. “Eeeh?! Saihara-chan isn’t gonna invite me?” he said pitifully. “I thought we were friends? But you’re just a meanie…”

“D-Don’t start with that,” said Shuichi while bracing himself for loud crying. “If you really want to come, I need to ask Momota-kun first.”

“I didn’t know that Momota-chan was your mom,” said Kokichi, without a single hint of the earlier sobbing.

“Momota-kun invited Harukawa-san and me, so if you want to tag along it’s his call.”

As if right on queue, a voice rang out. “Yo Shuichi, did you pick something yet?” It was Kaito, walking towards his friend without noticing the smaller boy. He pointed at the dark blue cloth in Shuichi’s arms. “Not bad! Totally fits your style, man.”

“What can I say? I’ve got great taste,” Kokichi piped up, his head was poking out of a rack of clothes.

Kaito jumped a bit. “O-Ouma?! The hell are you doing in there?”

“Just here to annoy dear Saihara-chan, and with that out of the way I bid you all farewell!”

Kokichi tried to walk away, but before he could get far Kaito grabbed his arm and pulled him close. “Oi, hold up! You going to the festival?”

Instead of immediately responding, the smaller boy tried to pull himself away. “Of course I am! Why do you ask?”

“You’ll get up to no good by yourself. Someone ought to keep an eye on you.” He let go of Kokichi. “Come with us.”

“Oh yaaaay,  _ you’re  _ gonna babysit me? How fun,” he said dryly while picking at his nails. Then he turned to Shuichi with a smile and bright, purple eyes. “I’ll tag along if, and only if, Saihara-chan is okay with it!”

“Um… I guess if Momota-kun says it’s fine… I don’t mind,” answered Shuichi. He looked up at Kaito with some puzzlement.

Kokichi hummed. It looked like that wasn’t the response he wanted. “Alright, I guess I can go.”

“Great, now you just need a yukata like the rest of us. There’s smaller sizes that way,” said Kaito while pointing to a corner of the shop.

When the smaller teen walked off, Shuichi decided to speak up. “Um..Momota-kun, did you hear my earlier talk with Ouma-kun?”

“Nope, what did you guys talk about?”

“Oh..well, I guess it doesn’t matter now,” waved off Shuichi. “You’re really going to watch over Ouma-kun?”

Kaito shrugged. “Sure! You know how he always plays pranks at school; I won’t let him get away with that at a public festival. Now I just gotta tell Maki Roll. Let’s go find her, she’s probably done in the dressing room.”

* * *

On the day of the festival, Kokichi sighed in frustration as he tried to keep the purple obi in place while he wrapped it around his torso. Wearing this yukata was turning out to be a lot harder than he had expected. Was this karma after all the times he made fun of his upperclassman Hiyoko after he found out she needed help tying her own kimono? He fumbled with the obi for a while longer; just as he thought that he figured it out, his cellphone rang and broke his concentration. He groaned in defeat before going to pick up his phone.

“He~llo?” He gave up with the obi for now and let it drop to the floor.

“Dude, where the hell are you?” It was Kaito, sounding rightfully annoyed.

“You've reached the secret DICE hotline! The boss is busy—”

“Ouma, I know it's you.”

“You can't prove that.”

“I cut you off and you just responded to me!!”

“Nishishi! This is still an automatic message~ I can predict what you say, beeep!”

“Dude, we're already late!” yelled Kaito. “You in your room? I'm coming to get ya!”

“Eeeh wait a sec Momo—” He didn't get the chance to finish talking before Kaito hanged up. Kokichi pouted and threw the phone onto his bed. He looked at the checkerboard pattern yukata that was hanging loosely on his shoulders. A tiny part of him wondered if Shuichi would come here alongside Kaito, but he knew it was just wishful thinking.

_ Knock, knock, knock.  _

Pulling up the yukata a bit so that it wouldn't drag on the floor, Kokichi walked towards the door. “Who is it~?” he asked in a sing-song voice, a hand right on the doorknob.

“It's Kaito, I'm here to see what the hell is taking you so long,” came Kaito's voice. “Maki Roll and Shuichi are already over there waiting for us!!”

“Aww they left you? You should have gone with them!”

“I'm not gonna let you go on your own! What kind of man would I be?”

Kokichi rolled his eyes and grinned. “Nishishi! Why does that sound like something a boyfriend would say?”

“Tch. Hurry and open the door.”

“It takes time to look good, Momota-chan! Nishi!” he laughed and started to open the front door. “Not like you would know...anything...” His sarcastic comment slowed to a stop.

Kaito was wearing a dark plum colored yukata; by itself it might be considered a bit plain looking. Over the astronaut trainee's shoulders was a dark coat with a white grid pattern. Then there was the obi wrapped around him which looked like the starry night sky. All together, the accessories really completed the outfit. Kokichi decided that Kaito looked good in traditional clothes. Real good. He hated his dumb, gay self for ever thinking that an idiot like Kaito looked handsome.

“Wow Momota-chan! If it weren't for your ridiculous spiky hair, I'd say you would have fit right in the Meiji Era!” joked the smaller boy. 

“Gee, thanks,” said Kaito dryly. He lowered his head and whispered, perhaps worried someone might overhear. “Why the fuck are you half naked?”

Kokichi grinned. “What, you don't want to see me half naked?”

“Fuck you.” 

“Momo-chan, this isn't the time for your fantasies~”

“Oh please,” he scoffed and pushed his way inside the room. “There’s better stuff to fantasize about than you; like the day I finally get to go up in space.”

“Wow. I can’t believe you wanna fuck an alien.”

“What? No, that’s like so dangerous and stupid.”

“Exactly, it’s perfect for you.”

“Just…just come over here,” mumbled Kaito as he picked up the obi off the floor. He pulled the smaller boy closer and went to work tying the yukata. “Ya could have told me you were gonna need help when we were all shopping the other day,” said Kaito once he was done. 

“I don't need help! I just wanted Momota-chan's hands all over me.”

“More like you wanted Shuichi’s hands--ah shit.” He flinched and tried to avoid eye contact. 

An awkward silence fell between the two boys. After some hesitation, Kaito went back to tying the yukata, only for Kokichi to pull away once he was done. “Momota-chan, hey, look at me,” he said in an eerily calm tone. He tugged at the other boy’s goatee and lifted his chin up to make Kaito look his way. “What makes you say that?”

“What? You’ve told the whole class that you liking guys isn’t one of your lies.” 

“And that’s true! But why say Saihara-chan? I mess with like half of the boys in our class, including you.”

Kaito pulled away and stood up. “Yeah, but you’re sorta different around Shuichi. I dunno, call it a hunch but... It’s like you want a deeper bond with him. You think he can figure you out.”

“Wro~ong! I just think he’s got a cute butt.” Kokichi laughed bitterly. He didn’t like the way Kaito would read people. It was something Kaito seemingly did instinctively, and that was incredibly stupid to Kokichi because people weren’t supposed to be open books. Even more irritating, were times like right now, when Kaito’s ‘hunches’ weren’t that far off the mark. Kokichi moved his hands behind his head in an attempt at looking relaxed. “Okay, so I like Saihara-chan. So what? Are you gonna cockblock me now?”

“If I was, I wouldn’t have invited you to this festival,” said Kaito. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Shit, we really gotta go.” He hurried out of the room, leaving Kokichi to grab his things and follow.

* * *

Maki was sitting on a bench, under the shade of a large tree. She had bought an uchiwa from a booth and was using it to fan herself. She was wearing a dark red yukata with a flower pattern, and her long hair was tied up in a bun. The heat and flies were a nuisance and a part of her almost wished she was back home. But she had made a promise with her friends to come to this festival, and now here she was stuck waiting for one of said friends to show up.

“Harukawa-san?”

Shuichi gave his friend an embarrassed smile as he showed her the candied apples he bought. “Sorry, I probably should have asked what food you’d like,” he said apologetically. His yukata was the one that Kokichi had picked out. He traded his usual hat for a festival mask of a popular magical bunny mascot.

“...It’s fine, I’m not picky. Thanks,” she said after a brief pause.

Shuichi sighed and sat down beside Maki. They both ate their summer sweets while watching people walk around the festival. “Harukawa-san,” whispered Shuichi. “How do you think today will go?”

“You mean with Ouma hanging around,” said Maki, but it wasn’t a question. She bit into her apple and shrugged. “He’s not one of the kids I look after, so he’s honestly not my problem. I was going to just let Momota deal with him.”

“Heh, I feel a little bad for Momota-kun.”

“I don’t….Not when it was supposed to be just the three of us here.” She pouted. 

“Oi! There you guys are! Sorry we’re late!”

“Yeah! It was all Momota-chan’s fault!”

Maki and Shuichi turned towards the voices. Kaito was glaring down at Kokichi while the smaller boy only grinned. 

“It’s fine,” reassured Shuichi. Maki only nodded and continued eating her candy apple.

Kokichi gasped. “Hey! I wanna try some too!” He slid over next to Shuichi and pouted cutely. “Saihara-chaaaan! Give me a bite!”

“Um, let’s just go to the food stall,” said Shuichi as he raised his treat away from the other boy.

“Fiiiine, I don’t like apples that much anyway,” said Kokichi with a big sigh. 

Kaito bumped his fists together. “Snacks later, we should play some games first.”

“Eeeeh?! Do you want me to starve?”

“Ouma, you won’t starve. Come on, I bet I can beat you at any game.”

“Oh?? Is that a challenge?” Kokichi raised an eyebrow. “What are we betting? Loser buys the winner food?”

“That works!” Kaito turned to his two friends. “You guys wanna get in on this?”

“Nishi~ I promise to go easy on Saihara-chan!”

“Aah, no thanks.” Shuichi waved his hands in protest.

“We can still play, but count us both out of your little competition,” said Maki as she started walking towards a row of booths, “I saw a couple of shooting games around there.”

* * *

After a few rounds at different shooting booths, it was unanimously agreed that Maki had excellent aim. Every shot she took hit its target, and she went away from the games with two bags full of toys. “You’re amazing Maki Roll!!” gushed Kaito, “So are those all going to the kids you live with?” Maki nodded, a tiny blush was blooming on her face.

“Harukawa-chan has some serious sniper skills,” said Kokichi. In his arms was a white cat plushie; the sole prize that anyone besides Maki had been able to win. “I should have you join my secret organization.”

“No.” She shot a deadly glare at the tiny boy.

“Ok, ok, let’s play yo-yo scooping next,” said Kaito as he led the group towards another set of stalls.

“Hey! Wait a sec! I want my free food!” Kokichi rushed in front of Kaito and waved the plushie in the air.

“We’ve only tried one type of game!”

“Yeah, but we played like a hundred times and Momota-chan never won anything.”

“Tch, fine,” he huffed and then turned to his friends, “You guys can go on ahead, we’ll catch up.”

When Maki and Shuichi walked off to play more games, Kokichi’s usual smile switched off. “Saihara-chan barely looks my way,” he said with a scowl, “He didn’t even compliment me when I finally won.”

“Hey man, maybe you’re expecting too much from him? You guys aren’t that close to begin with.”

“Maybe if he’d talk to me more, then we would become closer.” The two teens stopped at a food stall, and Kokichi’s eyes lit up. “I’m sad. Buy me all the sweets.”

“Not happening. You can get one thing.”

“Then I want the biggest cotton candy that they’ve got.”

The biggest cotton candy turned out to be just a bit larger than Kokichi’s head. It was fluffy, pink sugar in the shape of the head of a bunny. Kokichi hummed happily before rushing to a bench farther away from the big crowds. “Hey Momota-chan,” he said once the other boy caught up with him. “You like giving advice, tell me what to do about Saihara-chan.”

“I dunno, maybe try telling him straight up that you like him?” suggested Kaito. He sat beside Kokichi and then added, “Although, given your track record, he’d probably think you’re lying to him. Actually, how do you even know he’s into dudes?”

“Momota-chan is either an idiot, an alien, or both if he never found out about the guy Saihara-chan has been crushing on for at least two months,” he answered in a dull tone as he plucked a tuft of cotton candy and ate it.

“Oi! I’m neither of those things!” growled Kaito. He shoved the smaller boy in annoyance. “And what are you talking about? Shuichi doesn’t like anyone...I think.”

“Where’s your usual confidence, spaceman? Are you thinking that your best friend is keeping a secret from you.”

“No... Why would he do that?” 

“Cuz how could he admit it,” he paused to eat another bite of his treat, “When the guy he likes is the same guy that Harukawa-chan’s crushing on?”

“What?! Now I know you’re lying!”

“Nishishi~ Yep! You’re pretty smart sometimes!”

Kaito groaned in frustration. He buried his face into his hands. “....Or were you telling the truth earlier and now you’re lying about lying? God, you’re such a pain to figure out Ouma.”

“I sure am, but I give you points for trying.” 

“You know,” sighed Kaito, and he moved his hands down to his lap, “If Shuichi is interested in someone else, aren’t you better off leaving him alone?”

“I know that, but I figured it was worth a shot,” said Kokichi. He looked down at the half eaten treat with some bitterness. 

“Maybe you should set your sights on someone else?”

“Hmm…” He munched on cotton candy while he pretended to think. He had already decided that he’d joke around. “Oh! Maybe I ought to just start dating you?” 

“I thought your standards were a guy with a cute butt?” 

“Well… your butt is okay, but you’ve got nice tits too and that helps.” Kokichi grinned coyly and pointed towards Kaito’s chest.  

He was rather disappointed that Kaito didn’t immediately get flustered. Instead, the astronaut trainee shrugged and said, “Thanks, I guess? Though I wouldn’t considered  _ that _ a charm point.”

“It’s better than that dumb-looking goatee.” At least that little comment had earned Kokichi an annoyed glare from the spiky haired teen. 

“Oi, my beard ain’t ‘dumb-looking.’ grumbled Kaito. He reached over and pulled a large chunk of spun sugar, it was pretty much a whole ear off the cotton candy rabbit. 

Kokichi gasped. “Hey, who said you could have any?!”

“I paid for this,” retorted Kaito. He ignored Kokichi’s glare and bit into the candy, part of the pink treat was left dangling by his teeth. He turned to raise an eyebrow mockingly at Kokichi, silently asking the supreme leader what he planned to do next. 

“That’s how you want to play, Momota-chan?” He swiped at the candy with his free hand, only for Kaito to lean away from him. Kokichi shuffled a little closer. “I can’t believe you always accuse  _ me _ of being childish, and then do something like this.”

Kaito stifled back a laugh, careful not to drop the melting sugar in his mouth. However, his eyes went wide because he didn’t expect the smaller boy to lunge towards him next. They squirmed around for a bit, but Kokichi grabbed onto the yukata’s collar to keep himself steady. Soon enough he was proudly sitting on Kaito’s lap. Kaito’s only response was to shrug and swallow the remaining bit of candy.

“Wow, I can’t believe you ruined my plan,” deadpanned Kokichi. “I was going get all up in your face and steal the cotton candy right from your mouth. This is underwhelming…”

“Sorry, didn’t know you wanted to share spit that badly,” said Kaito. “Now, will you get the fuck off me?!”

“Hmm, nah! It’s kinda comfy here!” He tensed up when Kaito grabbed his small shoulders and looked ready to push him off, but then he heard a pair of voices behind him.

“Momota-kun?”

“What are you idiots doing?”

Kokichi turned his head back. He saw Maki with her bags of toys and a murderous look in her eyes. He saw Shuichi covering his mouth with his hand, his brain was probably working overtime with trying to piece together what he was seeing. 

“Uh, hey guys,” Kaito let go of Kokichi and waved at his friends, “Kept you waiting? Sorry about that, I--”

“Aw, you two just missed our big smooch!” interrupted Kokichi. 

“Ouma! Shut up!” Kaito yelled and finally shoved the other boy off.

He stumbled a bit but maintained his balance. “By the way, we’re gonna start dating now.” He wanted to laugh at the way Shuichi’s eyes widen from shock. 

However, what stopped him from enjoying it was Maki’s murderous glare.

“Dammit, when did I agree to that?!”

“Right before we kissed, of course!” he took a bite from his half-forgotten cotton candy. “How could you forget so fast?”

“Maybe because it never fucking happened?”

Shuichi turned towards Maki and whispered, “Do  _ you _ know what’s going on?”

“No, but I think I need to kill the both of them.” 


End file.
